Quick Shots - Chronicles of Samantha Shepard
by Desert Sunrise
Summary: Dribs and Drabs, miscellaneous pieces, backgrounds and fillers...but all will be events that impact or include Shepard that don't necessarily fall within the timeframes or storylines of the Chronicles of Samantha Shepard. You never know what you might see here... All comments/critiques, thoughts, and prods more than welcome!
1. Beginnings

Beginnings

Hannah McCormick was driven; she grew up a ward of the state after her parents were killed in an accident when she was seven and had entered her compulsory military service at the age of eighteen as a seaman recruit in the Royal Navy in 2148. Her first year of service was a time of radical change, following the discovery of the Charon relay and the formation of the Systems Alliance, with governments and militaries of the eighteen largest nations on Earth merging together to develop new policies and larger space fleets for the new age of exploration. It was an exciting time, and with everything that was happening, Hannah quickly decided to make it a career. She worked hard over the next four years, completing her college degree while on active service, and got accepted into the Alliance Officer Commissioning Program in 2152, only in its second year of existence.

Having just graduated from the first class and awaiting news on his first assignment, Systems Alliance Ensign David Shepard was doing what they called 'casual status' at the schoolhouse in Rio de Janeiro and worked in the new student orientation program. He was working in reception when a firebrand walked purposefully in the door and lit his soul on fire. David thought the new arrival was very attractive; she had a slim athletic build and he guessed she was 1.7 meters at best, with her boots on, and her auburn hair and piercing deep green eyes made her seem larger than life. The woman positively exuded confidence. _By God, she's perfect. They always say good things come in tiny packages._ His fingers paused on the keyboard, frozen in time as the woman glanced around the room and her eyes locked on his. He inhaled sharply as she turned and headed straight at him.

The woman strode up to the counter, stood at attention and snapped a perfect salute. "Sir! Cadet McCormick reporting for duty!"

David slowly let out the breath he was holding as he typed her name into the records search. When he spoke, his voice came out much smoother than he thought possible with the tightness he felt in his chest. "Welcome, Cadet. Relax. I am nowhere in your chain of command and you don't report in to me." His eyes drifted back up from the keyboard and met hers with a reassuring smile. "You're early. Don't need to be here until tomorrow. Most folks go to downtown Rio and report in the morning, but if you want to stay here, I'm sure we can get you settled in somewhere for the night. Don't unpack though, because you'll be moving into the dorms tomorrow with the rest of the new class."

Hannah relaxed and returned his smile. The man before her had a friendly face, with absolutely gorgeous silver eyes, and his voice was a relaxing, smooth and rich low tenor. Her stomach fluttered as wayward thoughts floated unbidden across her consciousness; _I'll bet he has a beautiful singing voice...I'd love to hear him sing. _She caught herself glancing at his hand and feeling an unexplained surge of excitement when she saw no ring; she scowled and shook her head, drawing her focus back to the task at hand.

David saw the smile vanish and turn to a frown. Curious as to the cause, words flowed from his mouth before he could stop himself. "Something wrong, McCormick? I liked you better with the stunning smile." David's eyes got big and he groaned out an apology as his own smile turned to a grimace. "Sorry, that was extremely unprofessional of me."

Hannah's confident air took a temporary hiatus as she comprehended what he said, but her lips got back some of their upward curl. _Stunning smile?_ "Uhm...no, nothing's wrong. I just...Oh hell." _He did say he's not in my chain of command...Nothing ventured, nothing gained, McCormick._ Hannah grabbed back hold of her self-assurance and set her shoulders, then continued, stronger, with a tone of gentle amusement as she spoke. "You like my smile and I like your voice. So where's that put us?"

David's smile returned as he chuckled to himself. _Oh. My. God. Did she just really say that? I think I love this woman._ David's eyes twinkled with mischievousness and he responded with a glint of humor creeping into his voice, bowing slightly as he spoke. "That puts me at an introduction, Ensign David Shepard, at your service." He paused his speech only momentarily as he stood back up straight, mustered his courage and continued, "It also puts me at your door tonight at 6 PM, in civilian attire, to take you to dinner and introduce you to Rio?"

Hannah's eyes popped wide in surprise for just a second before she managed to school her features, then she shook her head and let out an honest laugh that lit up her whole face. "Well, a girl's gotta eat, and downtown Rio sounds better than the Mess, so that sounds like a date, Mr Shepard."

* * *

The prior-enlisted commissioning course was designed to increase in difficulty as time went by, so early on, most of Hannah's evenings were free. With the time they had, David showed her the sights and sounds of Rio, and having just graduated, gave her lots of tips about the various upcoming courses and helped her pinpoint where she needed to focus her efforts. At the end of their third week, David finally got orders for his new assignment and showed up very sad at Hannah's door, telling her he had to leave the very next week. He had very much enjoyed his period of casual status in Rio, where he met and fell in love with the woman of his dreams, but they both knew he had to move on (reluctantly) to his new job.

Even though they had known each other for less than a month, they both recognized they had met their soul mates in each other, and it was a surprisingly quick and easy decision to get married after Hannah graduated. So, over the course of the year, David hurried back to Rio whenever his job permitted, which unfortunately only equated to two weeks in January and one in early May. With Hannah's increasing course load, Cadet McCormick and Ensign Shepard didn't have all that much personal time together, but neither one had unrealistic expectations and they made the most of what they could get. When David couldn't be there, they still kept in regular contact, chatting on vid calls at every opportunity. Mid June of 2153 brought them both great happiness when Hannah graduated top of her class, received her commission as Ensign Hannah McCormick, Systems Alliance Navy, and got her assignment of choice out in the frontier, on the same cruiser as David.

**2153 - SSV Hyderabad, Second Fleet, Eden Prime**

"Hannah!" As he called out, David waved his arms excitedly to get his soon-to-be wife's attention. At six foot, he towered above most of the people waiting on the transport to arrive through the relay and it was easy for Ensign Hannah McCormick to pick him out of the crowd. She soaked up the view, admiring his athletic build; he looked perfect in his leather jacket and jeans. It was obvious he was doing well, with his sparkling silver gray eyes and a wonderful tan; he must have spent a lot of time groundside on Eden Prime during his shore rotation. She was sure no one confused him for a colonist though, with his black hair cropped short in the typical high and tight haircut there was no mistaking him for anything other than a military man. She dropped her duffle and hugged him tight as he scooped her up and spun them in a circle.

As he set her back on her feet, she pulled away and smiled. "Oh, Dave! I missed you! I'm so glad to be here. I still can't believe they gave me a joint spouse assignment right out of school!" Hannah beamed at the man she had been engaged to practically since they met the year before.

David just laughed and grinned as he answered. "Of course they did, Scottie! You were first in your class. They know a mover and shaker when they see one! You could have gotten just about any assignment you wanted." He smirked as he continued, "I'm just glad you picked me... uhm, I mean the Hyderabad..." He quickly ducked away from her as she went to punch him in the arm, then quickly reclosed the gap and scooped up her bag.

Hannah glowered at him on principle, "David Shepard! You know I'm Irish, not Scottish! What am I to do with you?" Her grimace quickly crumbled into a smile at the familiar nickname and the impish look David cast her way. She wrinkled her nose, "I may need to reconsider the statement about missing you..."

David laughed again and pulled her to his side. "Come on. We'll hop the shuttle to the ship and I'll show you our new digs. They had a vacant married billet available, so they were nice and gave it to me a few days early...so you can settle right in and we don't have to worry about moving after the wedding. You've got a whole new town to explore; it's not bad, but I have to warn you...it's definitely not Rio!"

While Hannah should have had two weeks of transition time to her first job, because of her choice of assignment, she ended up pinched between her commissioning and the ship's deployment departure date. Not knowing when another opportunity would present itself, they had decided to squeeze the wedding in when they could; even with the imminent deployment, David had managed to finagle the week of vacation time. The first few days were a whirlwind of activity making final preparations for the ceremony. The colony of Eden Prime wasn't much; it had only been established the year prior and it was still largely agricultural. That said, however, humans are enterprising souls and one of the earliest things they did once they got crops growing was to set up a distillery and brewery, and the first local spirits and beer were being introduced in rationed amounts at the local supply store and made for an unexpected but pleasant addition to the small reception provided by the ship's captain, in the Captain's Mess. Things being as they were, the ship slipped out to the relay only two days after the wedding and the crew headed toward their first destination; David went back to work in Engineering and Hannah started her in processing aboard ship as a new weapons control officer.

Hannah didn't realize just how much crap in processing consisted of, and quickly understood why they allowed thirty days to get everything done. She was expected to report to work for normal duty hours, and had to squeeze all her appointments into the gaps in her schedule, leaving her little free time to do anything other than sleep. She plowed her way through all her work-center registrations, got her identification cards and uniforms issued and finished all the miscellaneous paperwork and training that was required. Sooner than she thought possible, her final transition day arrived and all she had left to complete was her biometric scanning and physical exams. After her biometrics profile was completed, Dr Low came in to finalize the exam and to discuss the scan results. Dr Low happily explained all the mandatory items and then ran the list of optional implants that were available for all active duty military members. Just when she seemed finished, she paused slightly before asking one last question. "Ensign Shepard. I know this has been a lot of information to process very quickly, so I want to be sure you noticed an optional implant that I did not include in our discussion, and explain why I didn't offer it. I know it's been less than a month since your wedding...but I did not offer the birth control implant because your pregnancy scan came back positive."

Hannah bolted upright on the exam table and practically yelled, "What?"

Dr Low cocked an eyebrow and questioned, "So, I assume this was not a planned pregnancy?"

Hannah stared at the doctor for a few seconds, holding her breath, before exhaling slowly and responding, "I... We just... Oh my. No, it most certainly was not. I need to speak to David."

Dr Low nodded her head in understanding. "Do you wish to hear all your options now, or would you like your husband to be present when we discuss them?"

Hannah actually laughed and shook her head. "No, I don't need to hear the options. David and I both want a child, we just weren't quite prepared to do it right now...but that won't matter. We're keeping... it?" Hannah paused briefly before continuing. "I don't know if David wants to know the gender or not. We weren't planning to do this quite yet, so we hadn't discussed it."

Hannah gave an anxious look to Dr Low, who responded with a chuckle. "Well, I have to tell you anyway. Alliance regulations." She laughed at the expression on Hannah's face, realized what the Ensign was thinking and quickly corrected the misconception. "I don't have to tell you the gender... I have to give you your options, whether you already know for sure what you want to do or not." She continued after she saw the relieved smile spread across Hannah's face, running the checklist of options and having Hannah provide a biometric signature saying she received the briefing. She deferred imprinting on a final decision, because she did want to confirm with David, first. Dr Low shooed her out the door with a final statement and a warm smile. "I need to see you back here in less than seven days with your final decision, if possible with your husband in tow. Then we'll do whatever needs to be done, which I assume will be to enroll you in the Prenatal Care and New Parent Education programs."

* * *

Hannah paced back and forth in the couple's quarters, waiting rather impatiently for David to get off shift. Standard crew rooms consisted of twelve bunks with drawers underneath and individual generously sized weapons lockers; the very back of the room had a centralized sitting area and two network terminals, one in each back corner. Her and David's accompanied quarters fit in a room roughly half the size. Immediately inside the door, a small private bath was on the left, while to the right were the weapons and armor lockers for quick access on the way out the door, accompanied by a small dining table. As she walked further back into the room, a desk was against the wall to the right, immediately followed by a small seating area, with a couch and a lounge chair. Back to the left-hand side was a queen bed with drawers underneath and a large dresser. She turned around yet again and was walking back toward the front door when it finally opened and David came in. As he rolled in, he saw his wife, smiled, and was starting to ask if she was ready to go to dinner when he saw the expression on her face, stopping him cold. "Hannah! What's the matter?"

She quickly closed the distance between them and blurted out the great announcement of the day. "David. We're pregnant!"

"Wha..." David's expression quickly moved from shock to surprise to joy and a huge smile split his face as he lunged forward, crushed Hannah in a hug and gave her a passionate kiss before lifting her off the floor and laughing with delight.

Hannah's face was still creased with worry, not quite believing her husband's reaction. "So you're not mad? I mean... I know we hadn't planned on this so early in our careers."

David couldn't stop smiling. "Are you kidding? This is great! We've got three years together at this assignment. I get to see my baby..." He gently dropped Hannah back to her feet and looked at her with a puzzled look on his face. "Boy or girl?"

Hannah laughed with relief. "I did the exact same thing when I was talking to the doctor, except I hesitated because you and I haven't talked about it yet. Do we want to know the gender or do we want it to be a surprise?"

David rolled his eyes. "Oh please. With our meager salaries? We need to know so we can start buying stuff now and spread out the cost. Oh! And we get to pick a name!" David was beside himself with happiness as he grabbed his wife's hand. "Come on! Let's go get chow... and I can't wait to tell all the guys!" As they stepped out into the hall, he threw his head back and yelled at the top of his lungs, "I'M GONNA BE A DAD!"


	2. Accidental Exposure

**2153 - SSV Hyderabad, Second Fleet, Flotilla Charlie - Deployed**

The Hyderabad was the lead cruiser for a small patrol flotilla and they had an assigned mission to travel through the Traverse on a routine "show the flag" tour through the Second Fleet's area of responsibility. The recurring mission was two-fold; first it entailed scheduled stops to drop supplies, provide tech assistance as required and collect status reports from two active sites, Therum and Chohe. Therum was a small mining and research site in the Knossos system of the Artemus Tau cluster and Chohe was a small Sirta Foundation research outpost in the Hades Gamma's Cacus system. Second, and a much larger portion of their mission, was to scan for anomalies, pirates and slavers throughout their entire sector. Their full area of responsibility covered the entirety of the Artemus Tau, Hades Gamma, Voyager and Gemini Sigma clusters; four clusters with fourteen systems, combining for a total of fifty five planets to be scanned. The relay dropped them into the Hades Gamma cluster, and the plan was to scan all twenty four planets within its five systems in a clockwise rotation, ending at the Chohe research outpost before moving into the next cluster. A similar pattern would be the standard for all four clusters-with only two scheduled stops the entire time, which equated to a lot of ship time; roughly ten weeks before they set foot on Chohe, another 10 weeks until Therum, and a final six weeks before they were back at Eden Prime.

It was David's second time out on the circuit and being familiar with the routine and relatively unconcerned about career progression, he took the six-month tour in stride. Being a 'mover and shaker' as David called her, and determined to make a great first impression, Hannah couldn't have been any more in contrast to David's easy going attitude. She spent every spare moment she found in the first couple of weeks familiarizing herself with the variety of weapons on the cruiser, and since they encountered nothing of interest during that time, the Operations Officer had ample time to run her and all the fire teams through multiple drills. Near the end of the month, they encountered their first hint of action somewhere near Nonuel in the Plutus system and Hannah was more than ready for action. However, it ended up just being a couple of small merc transports, easily dispatched by the frigates in the flotilla, so the cruiser never put its guns to use.

The stop at Chohe didn't amount to much either, but at least she got off the ship for a bit; it was as close to a mid-tour break as she was going to get. The outpost had some defensive weapons to maintain, but the majority of the research facility was underground so they didn't see much of the actual planet while they were there, with perfectly good reason; the planet's atmosphere was practically nonexistent, a near-vacuum, and though the advertised average temperature was pleasant, it was very misleading, because the days were extremely hot and the nights extremely cold...and there was twenty-seven hours of each, for a fifty-four hour day. The facility was very constricting, with small rooms and narrow passageways, and Hannah was more than ready to be back on the cruiser and underway. After they jumped to the Gemini Sigma cluster, they had a repeat of the pirate chase at Nonuel, this time near Mavigon in the Han system, and Hannah started to wonder if the Hyderabad really was just a flag ship, carrying supplies and support, while the frigate crews would be the only ones to actually get any action.

The second half of the tour was a bit more challenging and made Hannah reconsider her rush to judgment. Two weeks into the Artemus Tao cluster, the flotilla chased yet more pirate vessels when they jumped into the Macedon system; the pirates had three Corvettes which easily outran the frigates, and while the first two escaped, a well-placed shot from the Hyderabad incapacitated a third. The captain immediately dispatched a boarding team with the intent to take prisoners and recover information on the location of the main pirate base in the system. Hannah was shocked as the boarding shuttle closed on the enemy and the Corvette exploded, taking the Alliance shuttle and the twelve Marines with it. It was a staggering wakeup call for the young ensign and a painful reminder as to why the Alliance needed the flotilla out in the Traverse to begin with; pirates had no respect for life. Hannah was taken aback and a bit nervous when she was called before the investigative review board looking into the death of the Marines. The responsibilities associated with her position were highlighted when she realized they were looking at her targeting solutions, debating if any miscalculations on her part resulted in the eezo core breach that caused the explosion. She had complete faith in her work, but still breathed a sigh of relief when the board ruled her targeting solution was perfect and the pirates purposely overloaded their own core to prevent capture. The relief she felt was a shallow victory, knowing there were still twelve dead Marines, no matter how it happened. After a hasty salvage operation and a solemn memorial service broadcast flotilla wide, the mission pressed on.

The last stop in the Artemis Tau cluster, Therum, proved much more interesting than Chohe, with the surface being dotted with mine entrances, Prothean ruins, and an occasional river of lava. Unfortunately, those rivers of lava made much of the surface ungodly hot and the team had to stay in environmental suits any time they were outside, in case one of the many volcanic rifts decided to act up. Therum was a budding mining colony; a potentially very rich mining colony with pockets of trace eezo, as well as a plethora of heavy metals much desired across all of Citadel space. Jonah Ashland of Eldfell-Ashland Energy had two fully loaded freighters ready to return to the Sol system and requested fleet escort to the relay in Hades Gamma. Once the freighters broke atmosphere, the Hyderabad and two frigates led out to the Artemis Tau relay with the two frigates following behind and the last three frigates of Flotilla Charlie in trail. When they emerged at the Hades Gamma relay in the Antaeus system, on-board sensors detected a small ship jumping away in FTL. The captain assumed it to be a pirate scout ship and deployed the flotilla in a defensive configuration around the relay and freighters. The relay realignment from Artemis Tau to the Exodus cluster took approximately ninety minutes, during which time the two freighters would have been sitting ducks had they not been escorted. As it was, the appearance of the cruiser and accompanying frigates must have been enough to dissuade an attack, because no pirates showed up and shortly after the relay completed its realignment and came back online, the EAE freighters jumped to the Exodus cluster and the bulk of the Second Fleet without incident.

The next realignment took much longer and a lengthy five hours later the flotilla jumped to the Voyager cluster to finish the last six weeks of the mission. The cluster contained three systems, composed of fourteen planets, and turned out to be remarkably busy with an unusually high level of mercenary activity. After tracking multiple signals over a number of days, the flotilla narrowed the main base of operations down to the planet Agebinium in the Amazon system and a quick scan revealed an illegal mining operation. Standard procedure was to remove the mercs, by force if necessary, then cordon off the mine and occupy the site. The holding force would consist of four squads, for a total of twenty four Marines, supported by four Alliance Heavy Turrets on the ground, and the Hyderabad and two frigates in geosynchronous orbit above the site. The remaining three frigates from the flotilla would resume patrol and finish scanning the remainder of the cluster. First Fleet would dispatch a relief force for long term security, along with a geological survey crew to establish the status of the mine as a viable resource. Once they arrived, Flotilla Charlie would be released to return to Eden Prime.

Captain Joab Laban stood in the CIC of the Hyderabad and saw the last of the ready lights go green. "Initiate Operation Alpha." Immediately, two UT-47 Kodiak shuttles dropped out from the frigates that would be remaining on station. As soon as they were clear, the frigates made sequential touchdowns, each in turn belching an M29 Grizzly Infantry Fighting Vehicle off the rear loading ramp as soon as it touched dirt, then rapidly rising back into space. Each shuttle and each Grizzly carried a squad of six Marines. The Grizzlies approached first and eliminated external defenses with the help of the frigates' GUARDIAN laser turrets. Once the external defenses were down, the shuttles approached and the Marines disembarked. A driver and a gunman stayed in each Grizzly to guard the entrance, but the other twenty Marines breached the facility to take down the mercs.

As the shuttles relayed insertion complete messages, Captain Laban smiled and hit the comm once again. "Initiate Phase Bravo." Immediately, two Kodiaks dropped from the Hyderabad, each with equipment for two heavy turrets, four weapons maintenance technicians and a weapons officer; Ensign Hannah Shepard was thrilled to be one of the team members.

As the Marines pressed through the mine pursuing and clearing out the mercs, three Corvettes lifted out from a valley over the hill from the mine. As soon as they crested the top of the hill, they cleared the ground clutter and showed up on the shipboard scanners. The XO shouted out, "We've got contact! Only one klick northeast of insertion!" The shuttle operators and Grizzly gunners on the ground immediately rotated weapons into a defensive posture, but it was unnecessary; the surviving mercs had evacuated through a rear exit and made a run for it. They scattered in three different directions, and they scattered fast. The on-duty weapons team on the Hyderabad took out one Corvette, but the other two slipped away, hugging low in the mountains until they were out of line of site of the cruiser.

Listening to the comm chatter as she worked, Ensign Shepard called back to the XO and requested permission to change the turret installation configuration, shifting one of the four to the newly discovered rear entrance. Once the mine was cleared and the rear door declared secure, Hannah had a shuttle take one of the turret packages, two techs and her to the new location to set up the last defensive position. While they worked, the second shuttle took the remainder of the assembly team back to the Hyderabad. They finished the assembly and Hannah synced the entire system up to a unified defensive grid. Just as she was getting ready to program the system to enter an initial test cycle, the board went red and proximity alarms started going off. Thinking she did something wrong, she pulled up her omnitool to run a diagnostic, just as the turret she was standing at started to fire. The sound dampeners in her helmet were fast, but the initial shot and concussion still made her flinch in pain as the force rattled through her whole body. She yelled, "Damn it! We've got premature initiation. Shut it down!"

She glanced up at the technicians to see if they heard her above the 'fwhoomp' of the rocket launcher and saw a wide-eyed young seaman frozen in place, staring at the sky. Her head snapped around and she saw it; a mercenary Corvette had tried to sneak in fast and low and the turret had reacted and started the targeting cycle as soon as the defense grid came on line. The Corvette was now a burning mass of junk...headed straight for them. She didn't stop to think; she yelled at the seaman to move and dove behind the turret stand, praying it would protect her. The last thing she remembered was a huge explosion shaking the ground, being pelted with rocks that came off the cliff side and a huge fireball rolling over top of her. As her vision went dark, she thought... _at least I'm wearing a hard suit._

* * *

Hannah woke up thinking how much her body hurt, then her memory returned in a flash of fire. She immediately tried to sit up and check out her surroundings, but she moved too quickly, felt nauseas, and flopped back flat, groaning in agony. She heard a familiar voice, though it sounded distant, almost like the speaker was underwater.

"Ensign Shepard. Just take it slow and lay still for a moment. Can you open your eyes for me please?"

As she opened her eyes and looked around, she recognized Dr Low and realized she was in the med bay back on the Hyderabad. "Hey, Doc. I guess I was med evac'd after the crash, huh?"

"Yes, and it's a great sign that your memory seems intact. No apparent slurred speech and no excessive light sensitivity. Good. How do you actually feel?" Dr Low was looking in her eyes, testing pupillary reaction and who knew what else.

Hannah smirked, "Like I had a cannon go off right next to my ear and then got smashed by a crashing Corvette?"

Dr Low chuckled. "Well, now I know your funny bone isn't broken either." Her brow wrinkled and she pressed on, "Any nausea?"

"Yeah, that's why I flopped back down. I sat up too quick and felt like I was gonna hurl. Do I have a concussion? And can I get a drink? My throat feels like I swallowed part of that burning ship."

"Oh! Absolutely!" Dr Low grabbed a glass of water and handed it to Hannah as she continued her exam. "Yes, you have a concussion, so I didn't administer any sedatives or pain meds yet. I wanted to wait until you woke up. You also had a suit breach." The doctor watched the ensign carefully for her reaction to that statement, and Hannah quickly realized there was some reaction Dr Low was waiting for.

She started speaking, slowly, trying to give her brain time to catch up and figure out what she was missing. "Suit breach. Hell, that could have come from any number of things, but most likely shrapnel from the Corvette." It suddenly dawned on her and she immediately understood the implications and struggled to sit up. "Oh, hell! The Corvette! Was there an eezo core breach? Was I exposed to eezo?"

Dr Low grabbed her arm and helped her sit up, then adjusted the top of the bed so Hannah could lean back against it. "Let me start out by saying straight up...you and the baby are perfectly fine. Now, the details. Yes, there was a breach, but your hard suit minimized your exposure. You are in the majority grouping of it having no effect, but we'll be monitoring your pregnancy over your last trimester anyway, so we'll monitor eezo symptoms as well, just to be sure. Your daughter is also showing absolutely zero signs of precancerous mutation, but it's too soon to tell if there are any mutagenic effects. There is still a small chance she could develop eezo nodules in her nervous system, but I don't think the level of exposure was sufficient to result in biotics manifestation. I can't guarantee that, we'll just have to put it in her record and monitor her. Questions?"

Hannah shook her head. "I'm not gonna ever come see you again, Doc. You always seem to deliver the most surprising news." They both grinned as Hannah continued. "Questions. Not really. Oh...on the other hand... You say you'll have to monitor Samantha. How long?"

Dr Low smiled, "Samantha? I assume you've picked a name?"

Hannah beamed, "Yes, in honor of my mother. Samantha Hannah Shepard."

Dr Low opened her omnitool and made an entry. "Wonderful! I've added it to your file, but of course you can change it any time until it's logged on the birth record. Of course even then you can change it, just requires a bit more work to do so. Anyway, if biotics are going to manifest, it generally occurs before or with puberty, unless there's an extraneous event that forces the issue one way or the other. So it's essential to monitor until fourteen, maybe? Current practices dictate we monitor until they turn eighteen. Once they hit adulthood, it's up to them if they want to continue the monitoring program." Dr Low registered Hannah's nod of understanding and continued, "Now, if you have no further questions, I've had a very worried young man standing out in the hallway wringing his hands for the last two hours. He's already been given all the information, so no explanations are necessary. You ready for some company?" Dr Low's eyebrows quirked in anticipation of a yes.

Hannah sighed, "One more question, Doc... Seaman Winters?"

Dr Low's happy expression fell into a well of sadness. "Perished in the crash, I'm afraid. The Marine contingent at the door grabbed Seaman Michaels and pulled him to safety, but Winters was too far away. They couldn't reach him in time. They lost a couple men as well, during the assault. I'm sorry, Ensign."

"Well, shit. I kinda figured. Winters froze. I saw him and it was like his feet were glued to the ground. He just stared at the Corvette as it blazed towards him. I yelled, but was diving behind cover so I never saw what he did. I was hoping...at the last minute..." Hannah met Dr Low's eyes as she finished. "...he'd do... something. Ya know?"

"Yes. I know. Sometimes soldiers run into something that's just bigger than them and their brain can't process it. They just can't get past it, don't know what to do with it. Unfortunately, it happens sometimes." After a silent pause, the doctor shrugged her shoulders and walked to the door, preparing to let David into the room.

"Hey, Doc?" Hannah waited until Dr Low stopped and looked back at her. She spoke softly into the subdued quiet, "I have a rule. We've shared death. It's not Ensign anymore. It's Hannah."

The Doctor's eyes clouded for a brief moment before shining clear. "Very well, Hannah. I'm Jennifer." She smiled and gave a quick nod, as if to confirm to herself it was ok. "My friends call me Jenn, and you're right, we've shared death. That bonds us in a way nothing else can."

Hannah smiled back at her, "Thanks, Jenn. I'd love to see my husband now."

7


	3. To the Rescue

**To the Rescue**

* * *

**2163 - SSV Fuji, First Fleet, Arcturus Station**

"Captain Shepard! There's a band of pirates that has trapped the colonists in the church basement, and their threatening to burn it down with everyone locked inside!"

The Captain analyzed the situation and made her snap decision with laser precision. "Murdoch and Johnson. You two are on sniper duty...Take out anybody who even thinks about peeking outside. Sullivan, Michaels and Smith, you guys cover the back. Clover and Hills, you're with me on the frontal assault." Captain Shepard glanced around her squad to make sure everyone got their assignments and glanced down at her chrono. "Alright, be prepared to go in, move to position and go in thirty from my mark. Ready. Ready. Mark!"

The group dispersed like a well oiled team and everyone was in position to make the charge. The pirates had seen them coming and were bunkering in; this was going to be a tough take-down. The Captain was watching the time, and on the mark she charged in, yelling to her squad, "Go! Go! Go!"

The hail of gunfire was incredible and the pirates were falling fast. Suddenly the Captain saw a pirate pop up from behind a wall and she called out, "Hills! On your six!" as she dove at the enemy, hoping she made it in time. There was a loud crash and suddenly all was silent except for the soft patter of feet drawing quickly closer from a room off to the side of the alter.

"What under God's creation?" Father Stevens slowed down and stopped, immediately recognized the invaders and scanned the chapel, zeroing in on the squad leader. He moved quickly to the back pew, where he could hear a low groan and see the target of the two 'snipers' peeking over the back of the bench and snickering.

"Samantha Shepard. What have you done this time?"

Hannah's omnitool chimed and glancing at the holo screen, she feared there was only one person this could be about. She closed her eyes with a big sigh and punched the activate key. "Hello Father. This is Lieutenant Shepard."

"Hello again, Hannah. You'll need to bring reinforcements today, I fear. You have a full squad of eight, and you'll have to do a medevac. Nothing horribly serious, I don't think. Perhaps a dislocated shoulder and a good scratch on the forehead."

Hannah shook her head and prayed for patience. "I'm sorry, Father. Give me five minutes. Chapel 2?"

* * *

Doctor Karin Chakwas quietly surveyed the damage and raised an eyebrow as she started collecting her necessary tools. "How'd you get injured today, Captain Shepard?"

Captain Shepard stood tall, ignoring the deep gash in her forehead that was probably going to need at least twenty stitches. "I dove over a pew to tackle a pirate and he smacked me with the butt of his shotgun! It's ok. It's just a flesh wound."

Karin chuckled and shook her head. "I translate that as smacked your forehead on the bookrack on the back of the pew in front of you, and caught your shoulder on the bench on the way to the floor?"

"Hmmf. Yeah." Samantha looked none too pleased with the doctor's version.

Hannah had a warning tone in her voice. "Samantha Shepard. Where are your manners?"

The nine-year-old Shepard sat up straight and rapid-fired. "Sorry, ma'am. Yes, ma'am, that's what happened, ma'am."

Karin's lips twitched, but she did a very good job of not laughing. After she cleaned Shepard's forehead, she closed up the 'twenty-stitch' gash with a two-inch line of liquid bandage and two steri-strips. "The shoulder is just a subluxation, so it popped right back in. I still want to immobilize it for twenty-four hours, and ice for fifteen minutes at a time, every couple of hours while she's awake. I'll give you some pain killers as well, to take only as necessary. Probably need them for the first day, then just to get comfortable to sleep at night. Should be no longer than a week and she'll be back to full speed.

"Geez! A whole week? My squad's gonna fall apart without me!" Samantha had an expression of pure exasperation on her face.

Karin just had to laugh at the earnestness of her statement. Looking at Hannah, she offered, "Why don't you head back to work? I've got her; I want to get the first ice treatment on it, anyway. We'll grab some dinner and then I'll bring her back to your place in time for bed. I'll sit and read until you get off work."

A sincere look of thankfulness flickered across Hannah's face. "Thanks a bunch, Karin. You're a life saver! Still good for dinner tomorrow at seven, with drinks after?"

A broad smile beamed from Karin. "Absolutely! And I'll bring the Serrice Ice!"

3


	4. Gone to the Dogs

**Gone to the Dogs**

**2165 - SSV Geneva, Second Fleet, Arvuna**

Lieutenant Commander David Shepard was assigned to the SSV Geneva as her lead engineer in the summer of 2164. It was a great job, but the long hours presented difficulties, particularly as a solo parent raising eleven-year-old Samantha. Normally she would have stayed with her mother, but Hannah was serving on the SSV Hastings, a small frigate on a classified mission that didn't allow for nonessential personnel. So, since Hannah's reassignment from the Fuji to the Hastings, Samantha had been with Dad. Not that he didn't love having her; after two consecutive joint assignments, he had missed her tremendously when Hannah took their six-year-old to the Fuji. Being an Everest-class capital ship with five thousand souls aboard, the 888-meter dreadnought had been a better place to raise a kid without having to worry about the street gangs and crime of London, where David had been stationed at the Alliance Earth Headquarters. As it was, they spent every available day of vacation time together; Hannah spent her thirty days every year taking Samantha to London to see David, and he spent his thirty days on the dreadnought with Hannah and Samantha. Ten days every couple of months wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible either, and it gave the family a chance to catch up and stay connected.

Their new assignments told a different story. The Geneva wasn't nearly as large as the Fuji, being just a cruiser with less than four hundred personnel, and it was challenging at first for an active child like Samantha to adapt to such a limited environment. Add on the nature and location of Hannah's job, and David and Samantha couldn't go visit, so they were limited to Hannah's vacation time and the first year she only got two weeks. It was their first long-term separation and they were learning how to make do with lots of vid messages; it wasn't optimum, but it worked in a pinch. While David had initially worried about Sam getting into trouble with the other kids, leading them off onto some adventure like she had with her 'crew' on the Fuji, into parts of the ship where they weren't supposed to be, Samantha surprised them both with her maturity. Samantha was smart and had spent her entire life onboard ships, so understood how they worked...not just the ships themselves, but the military aspect of daily life; rank structures, the chain of command, emergency procedures, the whole shebang. So, being the enterprising child she was, before long she integrated herself into the crew and acted as a Yeoman of sorts, running messages and data pads between workstations and fetching tools, meals, and anything else she was permitted to carry and big enough to fetch.

She enjoyed the freedom, loved her Dad, and respected that he trusted her to roam freely to do the things she did. David and Hannah were both very pleased with Samantha's willingness to pitch in and the ship's captain was so taken with her, he even occasionally called Samantha up on the Bridge to watch the star charts as they navigated routine relays as a reward for her 'work.' She truly embraced life on board ship and couldn't imagine living anywhere else.

**2165 - SSV Hastings, Second Fleet, Classified Location: Skyllian Verge**

Lieutenant Commander Hannah Shepard was on duty, monitoring weapons systems and running checks and diagnostics. Being out in the Skyllian Verge bordering Batarian space was not the place to have weapons systems go down. The four-eyed bipeds were certainly not the friendliest of non-council races, being particularly well known for their pirate gangs and slaving rings out in the Terminus Systems. The Batarians had recently seceded from the Council in 2162, when continued Human expansion into the Verge had caused tension after the Council refused to declare the Verge as an area of "Batarian interest" and make it off-limits to other species for colonization. In protest, the Batarians severed relations, closed their Citadel Embassy and withdrew under a policy of isolationism.

Tensions were still high and there were periodic skirmishes along the border regions between independent trading and scouting vessels, but nothing of note had occurred as of yet, and Hannah was determined to keep it that way through a strategy of deterrence. No sane Batarian slaver or pirate would take on an Alliance frigate with weapons at the ready, and if a larger fleet showed up, the Hastings would broadcast a warning and jump FTL back to Elysium to notify the Second Fleet. The Hastings was on the relay run and just shy of the halfway mark out to their destination. Once at the relay, they would patrol the region and loiter for a day to scan the surrounding area before heading back to home station. The relay was approximately nine hours from Elysium and they had another five hours of travel by FTL to their destination. Hannah was hoping for a nice quiet tour; last thing she wanted was a conflict with a Batarian vessel that could draw the Alliance into all-out war with the Batarian Hegemony.

Hannah's hopes were shattered when the klaxon rang, followed by a ship-wide announcement warning of an imminent emergency deceleration. The Hastings dropped out of FTL and pulled a high speed turn, jumping back into FTL as soon as the new course could be plotted. Instead of the relay, they had turned completely around and were headed back past Elysium, going to a remote classified research station on Sidon. The trip would take roughly seven hours and as the crew transitioned to their battle station assignments and readied themselves for a counterattack against a large band of Blue Suns raiders who attacked the facility, Hannah said a quiet prayer of thanks that it was not war with the Batarians. She was preparing to send a quick message to David when the commander of the Hastings, Captain Ballard, issued a communications blackout until mission termination because of the nature of the classified research at the facility and lack of information on the purpose and severity of the attack.

Down on the crew deck, XO David Anderson selected the five-person ground crew and planned out the assault. Information was sketchy; the work at the facility was highly sensitive and led by Dr Shu Qian, a specialist in the field of virtual intelligence. Upon arrival, Anderson took the team down to the surface and entered the secure area of the research station. Entry was via an elevator that should have been guarded, however all the security personnel the team located were dead; the Blue Suns had been merciless, sparing no one. The team found the facility doors open, with no signs of forced entry, and the Blue Suns had treated the scientists no differently than they had the security personnel, most shot execution style at close range. Everything indicated an inside job that had already been completed and just as Anderson thought they had arrived too late, chaos erupted around them. Blue Suns mercenaries charged into the lab guns blazing. It didn't take Anderson long to realize the mercs weren't trying to kill them, they were trying to get by them and the Alliance team was blocking the exit. When the gunfire quieted, the Hastings team was victorious and there was only one surviving merc. As Anderson walked up, the merc was laughing weakly.

"You may think you've won, but you're all dead, just like us." The merc's grin showed red in his teeth as he coughed, obviously choking on his own blood from a punctured lung.

Anderson wrinkled his brow as he responded, "We're doing pretty well, I'd say. No dying going on here, except for you. Tell me who you are and why you're here, we'll double-time you back to the med bay and you might survive this."

The merc coughed again and doubled up in pain before he spoke one last time. "No... Our boss doesn't leave... anything to chance... No time... bomb set to go..."

As soon as he heard the word bomb, Anderson yelled at his team to retreat. He grabbed the merc and started to drag him toward the elevator; Gunnery Chief Jill Dah had served with Anderson during the First Contact War and stayed to help as the other three team members beat feet toward the elevator. Dah had just stowed her weapon and grabbed one of the merc's arms when their world exploded, finishing off the already weak merc and injuring both her and Anderson. The entire lower level was nothing but rubble, and the remaining ranking member, Corporal O'Reilly, called down a rescue and recovery team. An hour later, all personnel were once again safely aboard the Hastings; it had been ten hours since the klaxon rang and Capt Ballard had cut external communications and as the messages began pouring into the comm center once again, the Yeoman piped in, "Captain, we've got a priority message from command."

The Yeoman transferred it to a datapad and handed it to Ballard to read. After Ballard input his decryption key and progressed through the message, his expression grew darker by the line and at the end he whispered, "What a cluster fuck." He closed his eyes for a moment and let out a big sigh as he dropped the hand holding the datapad down to his side. He looked to the helmsman, "Get us on course back to Elysium, please, Mr Moyers." Once he received confirmation, he then looked to the Yeoman with a shake of his head. "Give me twenty minutes before having Chaplain Smithers report to my ready room, and then send Lieutenant Commander Shepard ten minutes later."

The Yeoman's face paled as she acknowledged the order. There was only one reason the Captain would need to speak to the Chaplain first and the Yeoman didn't want to think about the news about to be delivered to Hannah Shepard.

**2165 - SSV Geneva, Second Fleet, Arvuna**

The Geneva was between deployments and David Shepard was working away with two technicians, catching up on routine preventive maintenance while a news broadcast constantly chattered in the background. The stories were varied, ranging from the newly appointed Alliance Ambassador, Anita Goyle, attempting to get a Human into the ranks of the Spectres as a first step to being accepted into the Citadel Council, to the discovery of a new garden world by Humans in the heart of the Terminus System. It took Humanity one hundred years after landing on the moon before the first colony was established on Luna...and then, just sixteen years after finding the Charon Relay, they were already discovering and settling a world on the opposite side of the galaxy, almost directly across the galactic core from the Sol system; it amazed Dave to think about it. He was pulled from his rumination when he heard a voice he didn't recognize coming from behind him.

A man in light tactical armor was standing in the core fuels storage area staring at the vid screen. "Absolutely inspiring, isn't it? The capabilities of the Human race never cease to amaze me." He smiled as his eyes came off the screen and he looked at David. "Sorry, Commander, but I seem to be lost. Always been on frigates and the cruiser's configured a bit different."

"What are you doing in here?" David didn't recognize the man at all, and had no idea how he could have possibly gotten into this section of the ship without authorization and an access chip.

The man didn't look troubled by the question at all. "I'm here with a maintenance team from the colony and I needed to use the bathroom. Got turned around with the instructions and, well, here I am. The door went green as I walked by so I figured the chip they gave me unlocked it. I came in hoping somebody could give me instructions on how to get back to where I need to be."

David frowned; maintenance workers didn't usually show up in armor, and security escorts should have been fully briefed on the ship layout. He noted to have a chat with the security coordinator as soon as this guy was back where he was supposed to be. "You shouldn't be in here unescorted, so I'll have one of my folks take you back out. What work site are you supposed to be at?"

The man shrugged his shoulders and opened his omnitool, "I don't know what it's called, I just have a map; problem is, the map doesn't have a 'you are here' dot, so I can't get from here to there, because I don't know where 'here' is." He grinned as he pulled up the map for David to look at.

David was puzzled by the map as he studied it. "Well, _that_ dot must be the missing 'you are here' dot, because this is the room you're currently standing in, so where is your destination dot then, because I don't see anything else marked..."

As he leaned in closer to get a better view of the map, David realized his mistake a second too late. With the commander now within reach, the man's arm swung quickly and he smashed David on the side of his head as he pulled a pistol from some hidden pocket. The man sneered, "Too late, Commander," as he squeezed off a couple quick rounds, dropping the two unarmored techs at the back of the room.

Had David been shorter, the blow probably would have caught him on the temple and stunned him instead of catching him on the jaw and just knocking him down. He took advantage of the attacker's temporary shift of attention required to aim the pistol at the techs and rolled behind the desk, punching furiously on his omnitool and sending out an alarm. The onboard alarms immediately started ringing, and the entire crew was alerted to the unauthorized entry into the engine core room.

The man glanced back over to where David was hiding, the pistol barrel following his eyes. "That was a very stupid thing to do, Commander. You just got a lot of innocent people killed over a tiny storage canister full of antimatter. Not like I came here alone. You just couldn't let this stay simple." He paused for only the briefest of moments before ordering, "Get up."

David almost laughed as he remained in his cover. "You think I'm going to make this easy on you? Not a chance I'm opening the vault for you."

The man just shrugged his shoulders. "Fine. I don't need you to. We have hacking programs for that contingency." As he quit speaking he suddenly lunged toward the desk and before David could move, the man had shoved the desk over, pinning David to the wall behind it. "You're a smart man. You're an engineer. Too bad you didn't have anything besides basic combat training. You would've known to keep moving to make a harder target."

David could see the two technicians dead on the floor; eyes open, expressions of shock frozen on their faces, and knew the man would have no mercy. As the man leaned over the desk and raised his pistol, David squeeze his eyes shut and whispered the only words that came to mind. "I'm so sorry, Hannah."

* * *

Samantha was in the crew mess hall picking up lunch for the guys in the armory. They couldn't exactly leave the weapons unsecured to come eat, and the weapons had to be always available for issue even when in port, so that was one task she did every day if her dad was working. She would pick up and deliver their lunch, and they would talk guns while they all ate. She had to wait until she was fourteen to actually fire anything on the range, but she was a quick study so all the guys liked her, and they frequently pulled something off the rack and taught her everything they knew about that particular weapon. She had only been doing the lunch run the last few months, but when you do it almost every day, they'd gone through most of the weapons in the inventory. It had gotten to the point where they would test her to see how many of the different weapons she could field strip and reassemble in under a minute. The pistols and basic assault rifles were easy, but the SMGs had too many moving parts and she could only get a couple of the most basic ones done within the time limit; still pretty impressive for an eleven-year-old.

They always suckered newly assigned marines with the same bet; the new guys would walk in for initial weapons issue and the armory guys would tease them with the "little girl who brings us lunch is probably faster than you." Of course, they almost always won. Every once in a while they'd find a real weapons geek like them who was pretty fast, but it was rare, so the odds were definitely in their favor. They had told Sam that a new batch would be coming in the next week so she had to be ready. She was laughing and telling them it wouldn't be a problem when the alarms started blaring. The room erupted with activity, locks being undone with weapons and ammo being prepositioned on the counter. Samantha was moving fast to get out of the way and head to her assigned safe area when she heard someone call out. "Hey! Pull the specialty ammo, standard loads only... the alarm is in the Engineering core!"

As all the second shifters began hustling into the room to get their gear, everyone got really busy and no one saw Samantha slip into the maintenance access hatch and head toward engineering. She was going to find her dad. They had lived on military vessels her whole life and Samantha knew what death was... she had arguments with her parents and she understood anger... but when she found her father lying dead in a puddle of his own blood, she experienced a new emotion she had never felt. It was called hate.

**2165 - SSV Hastings, Second Fleet, Elysium**

Hannah was in her room packing her bags when her omnitool buzzed. She wasn't planning on answering it until she glanced at the caller and saw the name; Dr Chakwas. She took a steadying breath and hit the activate key. "Karin."

As a skilled trauma doctor, Karin Chakwas always performed well under pressure and now was no exception. She dived right in, "Hannah, I am so sorry. I just heard. I've already taken a leave of absence and I'm on the next shuttle. It's a direct jump from here and I will be with Samantha in less than twelve hours. I know it's going to take you at least three days to get there from your location and I want Sam to have someone familiar there for her."

Hannah barely stifled a sob as she started speaking, "Oh Karin. I...I can't believe it. I'm the one in the borderlands on the high risk mission and something happens to David in the colonies! God! Karin...Samantha is the one that found him!"

Karin's face registered shock and then immediately fell. "Oh my God. I'm so sorry, Hannah! I'm glad I'm already headed that way, or I'd start packing now anyway. That had to be horrible! What the hell happened? Can you say anything yet?"

Hannah nodded, "Capt Ballard didn't say anything about the information being classified, so I don't see why not." She paused, trying to figure out where to begin. "It was that damn extremist group, Cerberus. They infiltrated routine preventive maintenance teams during the annual inspections. David was the one to send the warning notice and trigger the alarm. They think his actions got everyone in the core killed. Shot them dead, then hacked the storage vault. They were after the stored canisters of antimatter. My husband and two technicians died over a couple little cans of space gas." Hannah's face twisted with grief and she started crying.

"I'm sorry, Hannah, but I don't understand how Samantha could have possibly found him. If the ship was under attack, why wasn't she in her designated safe area?" Karin was very concerned about Samantha having to process this without family around her.

Hannah let out a heartbroken sigh. "You know our little captain. She spends lunch with the armory guys, seeing how fast she can strip and reassemble various weapons in the armory. She was there when the alarm went out and the crew had to modify the ammo distribution because of the alarm location. They called out Engineering, and Sam went to find Dave instead of going to her safe zone. The only saving grace was they were very efficient and had already hacked the vault and left the area, else... Oh, God. Karin. I could have lost Samantha too!" Hannah busted out in tears yet again. "God, I've got to get hold of myself!" she sobbed.

Karin could see the hand Hannah was holding to her face was trembling. "I know it's useless to say, but I'm going to say it anyway. Try not to worry about anything. I'll be there soon and Sam and I will be waiting for you in the assigned quarters. I just need for you to pass authorization for me to pick her up and take her home."

Hannah shook her head. "No. You're already listed as an authorized caregiver; you know you've always been our emergency back-up. I don't _have_ to do anything, but I'll give them the heads-up you're coming. Call if you run into any problems."

Karin looked earnestly at her friend across the galaxy. "Hannah. Don't worry about anything. I'm boarding the shuttle in an hour, and then I'm off to Balor. The longest part of the trip is the FTL trip from the relay arrival point out to the Aysur system. I'll be only an hour out by the time you even get on the first shuttle available in the morning. I've got this... just be careful and get yourself there safe."

**2165 - SSV Geneva, Second Fleet, Arvuna**

Karin walked into the Protective Services building on Arvuna, told them who she was and provided credentials. The woman behind the counter looked at her and pursed her lips. "You do understand we won't force the child to leave here? Since the mother is on her way, we won't make Samantha go with you if she doesn't want to... we'll gladly keep her another two days." Karen's silver eyes picked up a steely glare at the attendant's comments, but softened as the woman continued speaking. The woman had paused and looked around to see if anyone was within hearing distance. Seeing no one, she lowered her voice and continued conspiratorially, "So there. That's the party line. Personally, I hope she goes with you. She's been very withdrawn and reacts very little to outside stimuli. She needs someone she knows. This is no place for a child with real family and friends."

When Karin walked into the room where they had bunked Samantha, she got little reaction from the wilted child piled on the back corner of the bed, huddled against the wall. Karin waked over carefully and sat down on a chair next to the bed, speaking softly. "Hello, Samantha. Your Mom is on her way, but it's going to take her a couple more days to get here." Karin sat and watched a silent tear slip down Sam's face before the girl brushed it angrily away. Karin continued gently, "I'm sorry about your dad. It's ok to cry, you know. I'd worry about you if you didn't."

At that, Samantha's head came up and that single tear suddenly had many more to keep it company. She didn't look at Karin; instead, her cloudy eyes just stared forward, unfocused. Her unsteady voice was very small and quiet as she spoke, "He had just a tiny hole in the front of his shirt, but a big puddle of blood under him. It was soaking into his clothes and I wanted to move him, but I was scared to touch him...I knew he was dead, Aunt Karin. I just knew it."

Karin couldn't stand it anymore and she started crying along with Samantha. "Oh God. I'm so sorry, Sam. You should never have had to see that." Karin spread her arms welcomingly as she finished, "Come 'ere, baby girl! Aunt Karin needs a hug."

Samantha let loose a sob and crushed into Karin's embrace, not letting go for a very long time. Eventually they made their way to the quarters and Karin made sure Samantha was as comfortable as she could be, given the circumstances. Karin thought the family quarters were fairly nice, albeit cramped, but that was to be expected on board a cruiser. It was a simple two-bedroom, one-bath, with a small central sitting area that held a couch and overstuffed chair with a rectangular coffee table and a small circular dining table along the back wall between the two bedrooms. All meals were provided at the mess, so no one had their own kitchen. The next couple of days were very quiet, with the pair getting occasional updates from Hannah as she transited via Arcturus Station and the Sol relay, finally arriving at Balor. Karin had requisitioned some packing crates and had kept Samantha busy packing up the apartment, careful to label everything so it would be easier for Hannah to sort items for shipping and storage, though neither one had even entered David's room.

It was early on the third day when Karin knocked softly on Samantha's door, entering only after she received an invitation. "Just got word from your Mom. She's in the system and should be arriving in eight or nine hours." Karin smiled gently at her charge, whom she thought was holding up remarkably well. "How 'bout you come on out and we go get some breakfast? Your mom should be here in time for dinner."

Waiting on Hannah's shuttle to arrive made the day's passage agonizingly slow. When she finally disembarked, she hadn't made but four steps when she dropped her bag and knelt down, catching a sobbing Samantha in her arms. She held her daughter close and glanced at Karin, noting the grim smile and clouded expression as the doctor walked up silently, picked up Hannah's bag, and slung it over her shoulder. She hugged her daughter tight, whispering in her ear. "It's ok, I'm here now. Mamma's got you."

Samantha pulled back and drew a ragged breath before standing up straight and squaring her shoulders. "I'm ok, Mom. Karin has been great...it's just all...weird...without Dad." Tears continued to sneak intermittently from her eyes, no matter how many times she tried to be brave and blink them back.

Hannah stood and gripped her daughter firmly by the shoulders. "I know, Sam, but we'll make it. We're tough. We're Shepards."

The next couple of days went by quickly as Hannah made arrangements for David's cremation and release of his ashes in space to travel the stellar winds. Both Hannah and David were true spacers at heart, neither content to sit planet side for any duration; certainly not for eternity. She discussed it with Samantha before making the final decision and had broken down in tears for the first time since her arrival on the Geneva when her daughter had responded, "I don't need a grave to visit. The only place Dad needs to stay is in my heart."

All too soon, most everything was done and Hannah had to think about returning to work. She was still agonizing over the decision on what to do with Samantha, since she couldn't take her to the Hastings with her. They had no family to speak of; Hannah was an only child and orphaned at age seven, and David had only visited his sister three times in the last twelve years, including the time he had been stationed in London for four years... even though Bristol was only three hours away. They just weren't close, and Samantha had only met them once, for all of four hours. Karin had graciously volunteered to take her, but Hannah felt incredibly guilty to even think about taking her up on such an offer. Karin had never married nor expressed any interest in having children, so Hannah had to question what the good doctor would do with an eleven-year-old.

Karin captured Hannah's eyes before speaking, "Hannah. I'm perfectly willing or I wouldn't have offered, and it really is the best option. You know I love Samantha dearly, and it's not like it'll be the first time I've watched her for you. What else will you do? Send her to Bristol to Ann...an aunt and family she hardly knows? Landside, when all she knows is space? You've just lost David, she can't go with you, and sending her to Earth would rip away everything else she's even remotely familiar with. On the Fuji she'll have both me and Father Stevens to help her deal with this." Karin watched Hannah briefly squeeze her eyes shut trying to stop her tears, as she continued, "And it will only be for the rest of the year until your tour is up on the Hastings and you get your new posting. Why don't we ask Sam and see if she has a preference?"

Hannah blinked her eyes a few times and shrugged her shoulders in surrender as she sighed, "You're absolutely right of course. I'm trying to make this decision and I haven't even asked her what _she_ wants to do." Hannah let out a brief laugh. "She is so much like us. She can field strip and reassemble a Phalanx pistol in fifty-two seconds...I can't expect her to go learn how to quilt and grow beans. She'd be miserable within a week." Hannah looked to Karin with more gratitude than one could possibly cram into a single expression. "You sure about this? Nine months is a hell of a lot different than a couple weeks when I had to deploy for a mission..."

Karin nodded. "Absolutely positive. Every time you left, I was prepared to keep her indefinitely in the event something happened to you and David was placed in the exact situation you are now facing. I've always been ready to keep her as long as necessary; this time is no different."

* * *

It was with heavy hearts that they packed up the rest of their belongings, including David's personal things. Hannah was nothing else if not practical, and much of what was in the apartment was donated or disposed of. They only kept those things which held some particular sentimental value to either her or Samantha. On board ship, there were two choices - it had to fit in either the clothing duffles or the gear footlocker, or it went away; they just didn't have room for a lot of extra stuff. The threesome traveled together to Arcturus and Hannah stuck around a few more days to help Karin move to her newly acquired quarters on the Fuji and get Samantha settled in. It was very similar to the quarters David had on the Geneva, except Samantha's new room had a bunk bed, of which she immediately claimed the top. Hannah was perfectly content with that, because it meant as long as she was here, she didn't have to literally climb into bed. As one of the specialty surgeons, Karin had been eligible for the move anyway, but until now had seen no purpose in taking a larger space; she certainly hadn't needed it. She made light of the situation, "Well, now that I've moved I plan on staying here until I'm reassigned. You'll have no excuse not to visit, because now I'll have a guest room!"

Hannah smiled in response. "Like I've worked so hard to dodge you... You're the bestest friend a girl could hope for, Karin!" She leaned in and gave Karin a huge hug, tears threatening to ruin the lighthearted conversation.

Karin pushed her away. "None of that now! You're leaving in the morning, and I'll not have our last night tainted with melancholy!" They picked up dinner from the mess and brought it to the room to spend their last evening eating, playing cards and drinking Serrice Ice Brandy while Samantha had watered wine. Being together again on the Fuji almost felt like old times, and they could almost forget what had happened, almost forget that David had been killed by Cerberus and wasn't just sitting in London at Alliance Earth Headquarters, almost forget about the huge hole left in all their hearts.

Almost.


	5. Accidental Exposure II

**Accidental Exposure II**

**2168 - London, Systems Alliance Headquarters**

Samantha was a space kid through and through, but being dirt side did have a few advantages. The headquarters in London was huge and Sam loved hanging around the space port and the boneyard. The old mothballed ships were fascinating, especially those that had been in the First Contact War and deemed too expensive to repair. They had been scrapped out and used for replacement parts for ships remaining in the fleet, so Shepard could check them out completely, lots of stuff not normally exposed in space open to the naked eye for study. She had learned more about the guts of a dreadnought in the last couple months than she did in the five years she lived on one. She got to see ships of all kinds, from all the council races, and _finally_ being fourteen opened quite a few doors. She was allowed to fire weapons at the ranges as long as a range master was present, and she had what was called a 'daylight license,' which meant she could drive powered transportation as long as the sun was up, so she had a way to get back and forth even if her mother was at work. They probably could have afforded a second small skycar, but Samantha was more than happy with her hovercycle. She much preferred it, actually; being buffeted by the wind and having an unobscured view all around as she cruised around. Her mom wasn't keen on it, but Samantha pacified her by always wearing her full gear; helmet, leggings, long sleeves, gloves, and boots. London had a tendency to be on the cool side anyway and the gear had literally saved her skin when she fell a couple of times while she was learning, so Samantha was happy to accommodate her mom's safety precautions.

It was late fall and Samantha was cruising through the boneyard just for kicks, wanting to take advantage of it while she still could. She couldn't ride through the winter and the weather was ready to change... and the next summer her mom would be getting a new posting, most likely back on a space rotation. Commander Shepard was a rising star on track for a command and it was apparent the Alliance was trying to get her as much varied experience as possible. Thus far, Hannah had been on a cruiser, a frigate, and a dreadnought, so there was a good chance at the next one being a carrier and Samantha was looking forward to it. She had never had much of a chance to check out operational fighters and could hardly wait for a chance to cruise the docking deck. Future plans aside, she used some of her remaining London time to check out a new area with additional ships from the First Contact War; the ships there originally had special gear of some kind and had finally passed some magic ten-year anniversary after which they were open to salvage, and living on base meant she had the opportunity to be one of the first ones to know the new section was open. She was happily cruising slowly through virgin territory checking out the sights when suddenly something stabbed sharply into the back of her skull. Her world explode in a bright flash of white and she fell from the hovercycle, her body landing crumpled next to a similarly crumpled shell of a fighter that had seen better days.

She woke disoriented, not remembering where she was but hearing her mother yelling at her. Not really yelling, per say, her mom didn't yell, but you could tell when she was angry just by the tone and pitch of her voice. Samantha's head hurt, and it hurt even more when she tried to open her eyes, and it was enough pain that her mom's words seemed garbled and indecipherable. After a few seconds, her memory surged back into place and her brain turned back on.

"...don't answer me right now you are going to be grounded for a week!" Samantha didn't even remember activating her omnitool, had no idea how much time had passed, nor how long her mother had been trying to contact her.

She started to speak while she tried to sit up. "Mom. I crashed the hover..." Her sentence was truncated as her motion triggered nausea and she threw herself to the side to prevent herself from puking down her own front.

Hannah heard the start of her daughter's sentence and then heard the retching; her anger immediately turned to concern. "Sam! Are you alright? Where are you?"

The violent turn to the side set Samantha's world spinning and she gagged as pain exploded anew in her skull. She cried out, but managed to mumble, "Mom? head. hurts. dizzy."

Hannah heard her and asked again, "Oh God. Samantha! Where are you?" After a moment of no response, she was verging on parental panic. "Sam? Please answer me, honey!"

She heard the sound of retching again and then a shaky voice in answer, "boneyard...new..." A groan of pain interrupted her words, and then Samantha continued, "section... northwest quadrant."

As soon as she heard the word 'crash,' Hannah had started moving and opened a conference call with the clinic, where the on-call Doctor was now listening in on the conversation. As soon as he heard the location, he dispatched emergency services.

"Samantha. This is Dr Michaels. Just lie still, on your side if you can, and leave your omnitool on. Can you do that for me?"

A weak voice whispered, "Uh huh..." with a following groan.

"Good girl. Now, emergency services is on the way, and they'll hone in on your signal, so they should be there very soon." Michaels just wanted to keep her conscious at this point, so tried to keep up a conversation. "What were you doing in the boneyard, Samantha?"

When he was greeted by silence, Hannah pitched in, "Sam? Sweetie? Can you still hear us?" When they still got no response, Hannah sat down hard in the nearest chair and put her head in her hands, whispering a desperate prayer. "Oh God, please. Please don't take my baby."

* * *

Samantha was pale, trembling and nonresponsive when they brought her in. They rushed her daughter by, and Hannah was beside herself when they kept her from entering the treatment room, saying the doctor would speak to her as soon as they knew something. For a while, Hannah paced... after awhile, she sat...then she just plain worried, wondering what could possibly be taking so long. All kinds of things ran through Hannah's mind, from broken bones to ruptured internal organs, but the doctor never came out to ask for permission for any type of surgery, so Hannah was bewildered. Just as she raised her omnitool to call Karin Chakwas, Dr Michaels finally emerged, looking rather haggard. Hannah immediately jumped to her feet, the call to Karin temporarily forgotten.

"Commander Shepard. I am terribly sorry that took so long, but we ran into a complication that could have been serious, but turned out to be not so bad." He reached up and wiped his face with his hands before continuing. "We found absolutely nothing at first, and I had no explanation for Samantha's condition...until the detector in the room started to beep."

Hannah was puzzled and had to ask. "Detector? Detector for what?"

The doctor looked at her, very pointedly. "It was an eezo radiation monitor. We had to bring in a decontamination team for the room and then to trace the source. Your daughter was found next to a damaged fighter that had not been properly sanitized."

Hannah's face went white with shock and she blurted out, "That's a second exposure for her!"

Michaels raised his hand, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have just laid that out there like that. We know it's a second exposure; her annual monitoring results are prominently posted in her records. Most important is your daughter is going to be fine. She's not showing any signs of malignant growths, but she is showing indications of nodule development. That's what's causing her condition; eezo migration through the body disrupts the nervous system while the nodules are under construction and interferes with communications through the brainstem, hence her initial blackout, her uncontrolled trembling and her continuing to slip in and out of consciousness. Once the eezo is done migrating and finishes coalescing at the nodules, they'll stop growing, her nervous system will find a new balance and she'll stabilize. When that happens, she should wake up and be fine. We have monitors on her to ensure her body maintains essential functions throughout the process and we'll know more over the next twelve hours... Just so you know, her earlier utero exposure may very well have saved her life, Commander."

Hannah stared at the doctor, uncomprehending. He sensed her confusion, so explained in more detail. "Her earlier low-dosage exposure basically 'desensitized' her system, kind of like a grounding rod, and prepped her system to be eezo-tolerant by forming micro-nodes. They weren't big enough to cause biotic manifestation, but they did provide a roadmap for the migration and allowed full-size nodule development to occur more easily. A post-utero exposure of this magnitude is normally fatal because the body can't process the mass migration quickly enough. Instead, the pre-established paths prevented the eezo from making any detours... and negated the probability of cancerous mutations. So, instead of her developing terminal cancer, you'll probably have a very strong, late-development biotic on your hands."

Hannah found herself falling back into the chair she vacated when the doctor walked in, finally understanding everything was going to work out ok. In relief, she sighed, "So, she's going to be fine, but she's going to develop biotics?"

Dr Michaels face split in a wide smile. "Yes, ma'am, she is going to be fine. How strong her biotics will be depends on the final size of the nodules and based on the severity of her exposure, I think she'll be in the upper output ranges. You'll need to consider where to send her for training." Dr Michaels knew all the information was a bit overwhelming, but pressed on. "I know this is a lot to take in, but you'll also need to consider getting her an implant. It's not mandatory, but if she develops to the level of power I think she will, after a couple of years of training she'll need one to help focus the energy or it could get away from her. She may have enough juice to overload her own nervous system. I don't need to tell you, that wouldn't be good. If you don't get her implanted right away, if she starts to develop headaches after biotic use, you'll need to get it done as soon as possible."

Hannah chewed nervously on her lip. "God, no. That wouldn't be good at all. I'll look into the implants, Doctor. Thank you." After a brief pause, Hannah looked up at Dr Michaels. "When can I see her?"

The doctor smiled again, "You can go in right now. She won't be coherent, but she does have periods of lucidity, and having you close might help keep her calm. A nurse will also be in the room the entire time to monitor her condition until she stabilizes."

The doctor showed Hannah to her daughter's room, and she perched on a chair right next to the bed. After typing a quick text message to Karin, she simply sat and held Samantha's hand while speaking to her gently, telling her everything was going to be alright. Sam did fade in and out of consciousness a few times, and each time she woke she seemed more aware of her surroundings.

Karin immediately arranged for a medical transport over from Arcturus and when she walked in the room, she smiled at what she saw. Hannah was sound asleep, resting against the bed with her head laid against Sam's thigh. Sam was awake and softly stroking her mom's head and playing gently with her hair. She saw Karin come in and waved silently with her free hand, smiling sleepily at the new arrival.

Karin whispered to her, her eyes twinkling with happiness at seeing Samantha awake and apparently fully functional. "Hello, Samantha. How's our intrepid adventurer?"

Sam shrugged and spoke quietly, "Fine, I guess. My head feels like someone put it in a can and beat on the side with a stick...and I'm really tired. Mom hasn't woken up, so I don't really know what's going on yet. She seemed so peaceful; I didn't want to wake her."

Karin's eyebrows came up at that statement. "So, she doesn't know you're awake yet?"

Sam started to shake her head and stopped suddenly, closing her eyes and wrinkling up her nose. "Ugh. Bad idea. Shaking my head still makes me feel like I'm gonna barf." Her eyes opened back up and she looked at Karin with an embarrassed grin on her face. "Sorry, that's kinda gross. No, Mom doesn't know I'm awake."

Karin chuckled at the young teen, "I suppose then, that we should wake her and let her share the good news."

After waking Hannah and getting the full rundown, Sam was actually pretty excited by the possibilities. Karin was also cautiously optimistic, nodding her head in approval of Samantha's attitude. "I don't want you rushing into this just yet. Let me do some research and find a good training facility... or at least a good trainer. And as long as you're not suffering from headaches, I don't want you getting implanted yet. The current L2 implants have problems with stability, and they already have a new design in the works. Give it twelve to eighteen months or so to get the bugs worked out and the new L3s should be wonderful... I think the timing will be close to perfect for you, and the L3s are designed to be much more easily upgraded than the older models. By then your skills should be developed enough that an implant would really benefit you."

At that moment, Hannah couldn't have been happier to have Karin as a friend; a trained Alliance medical profession who worked with biotics almost daily. Her knowledge on the side effects and benefits of the various implants was invaluable. Not that Hannah didn't have faith in Dr Michaels, but having Karin around, someone who Hannah knew for sure cared deeply about Samantha instead of potential performance as an Alliance biotic, was extremely comforting. She knew Karin would focus more on what Samantha needed, not what the Alliance felt best. Hannah relied on Karin to put Samantha's interests first, and as for training, Karin had told her the only Alliance funded program, the Biotic Acclimation and Temperance Training school, had serious problems. A recent altercation between an instructor and a couple of students resulted in the instructor's death. The entire program was under investigation, and even if it managed to pass the review boards, there was no way in hell Hannah would send Sam there. Hannah didn't care what it cost, but Samantha would either go to a private school or they would hire a personal instructor.

When they asked Samantha what she thought, she only had one request...that she not be sent away to any type of boarding school. She didn't mind going to a private school, but she wanted to be home in her own bed at night, with either her mother or with Karin. It had been three years since she lost her dad, but the ten hours she sat alone at Protective Services, waiting on someone she knew to show up, had been the worst ten hours of her life and she never wanted to have that feeling again. When Hannah heard that, she hugged her daughter tight as she quickly agreed to her request. No tears fell, but Hannah's eyes glistened as she looked across at Karin and their eyes locked. With only a quick nod of understanding, a silent compact was made that day between two best friends; if either one of them had anything to say about it, Samantha Shepard would never experience such a feeling of loss or abandonment ever again.


	6. Girl Interrupted

Notes: _ai'a me_: a trusted friend and unquestioned ally

_sim're_: "Sister of my sister, not intended for relations, refers to a dear friend's loved one

* * *

**Girl Interrupted**

**2171 - Arcturus Station**

Asari Matron Arlyna Sheya shook her head as yet another orb dropped to the floor before the student completed the pattern. The student was not concentrating well, she wasn't concentrating at all, really, and Arlyna wondered what was wrong. The Matron had come to Arcturus in late 2168, about two and a half years ago, as a personal favor to Dr Karin Chakwas. She had met the doctor nine years prior, when Huntress Sheya's commando team was out on maneuvers and their shuttle had a lift thruster failure during a landing approach. One commando had been killed in the resultant crash, three had minor injuries, and two, including Arlyna, had been seriously injured. The SSV Leipzig was out on patrol and happened to be the closest vessel, so they responded to the emergency beacon. Dr Chakwas saved the commando that day and Huntress Sheya felt she owed her a debt of life. As a doctor, Karin waived it off and the huntress was sure it was a debt she would never be allowed to repay. They had kept in touch, and when Karin asked about her availability to provide biotics instruction to the daughter of a dear friend, Arlyna jumped at the chance to help, bringing her bondmate, Niria Phessi, along as well, planning for a long-term stay. The Alliance suddenly found itself fortunate enough to have two Asari biotics instructors on Arcturus Station.

With the 'official' Alliance biotics training program in shambles, Karin had easily secured two training rooms from a grateful headquarters alliance staff , along with an overabundance of students on Arcturus station to keep Huntresses Sheya and Phessi fully employed and still have a wait-list. The first-year classes were daily for an hour every morning, the students not having the skills or endurance for longer exercises. In the second year, those students moved to two- and three-hour sessions of more intense work, immediately following lunch, three days a week. The other two weekly afternoons were reserved for the third-year advanced students, all of which were in the military and the Alliance picked up the tab, except for one special case, Samantha. She was normally an exceptional student and her current poor performance was very atypical so the instructor called a stop for the day and released everyone to independent practice after only two hours of the four-hour class.

As Samantha was packing up her gear, Arlyna walked over to her and gently touched her on the arm. "What is bothering you today, young one? Care to speak of it?"

Samantha flashed a quick smile and touched her right-hand finger tips to her forehead before she lowered her hand out flat, palm up, and nodded her head in respect to her instructor. "_Ai'a me,_ thank you for asking, but I'm good. Just a bit distracted. I've been studying for more credit placement exams to get what I need to finish my secondary education by Christmas."

Arlyna laughed and shook her head, "You are an ambitious maiden, Samantha Shepard, to finish your secondary schooling before eighteen years of age. Is not the customary age twenty-one or more?"

Samantha shrugged. "Yeah, twenty or twenty-one is pretty common, but not in my family. My dad finished early, so when he enlisted at nineteen he went straight into officer training, and got his commissions in only a year, instead of four years enlisted time first. I intend to do the same... uphold the family name and all." Shepard plastered on a lopsided grin that Arlyna had come to associate with the young woman over the last couple of years.

The instructor studied the face of the one before her, whose grin did not reach the eyes, before speaking again. "I still sense something disturbing you, and I do not believe it to only be your studies. Tell me, _Sim're_."

Sighing, Samantha confessed, "I've been getting headaches. I need to talk to Karin about it, to figure out if it's from stress or just being tired... or if it's time to think about getting my implant. I was hoping to finish my coursework first, but I'm kind of afraid to overdo my biotics in the meantime, just in case.

Huntress Sheya's face became very stern, and her voice was commanding, "Samantha Shepard. There is nothing to 'think about.' Go. Talk to Dr Chakwas. I've stopped class early, so you have plenty of time before your mother expects you home. This is nothing for you to fool with, and I... we all... care for you deeply. If not respected, biotics can be very dangerous. I have taught you this. Do not ignore the dangers."

Samantha's hand touched her forehead once more, beginning the salute to her friend, "_Ai'a me,_ I apologize and meant no disrespect." As her hand came down and her head bowed, she finished, "I'll head over to the Hawking immediately. Thank you..." Samantha's head came up with an honest smile, "...for caring and being more than just a teacher."

The huntress laughed gently and hugged her, "I am sorry. I did not mean to sound so harsh, but you concern me with the impetuousness of youth. I do care for you and would not want to see you hurt over something so preventable." As she released the hug, she gave Shepard a soft push. "Now go, before I tell your mother."

Shepard's jaw dropped. "You wouldn't!" The expression on Arlyna's face told her otherwise, so she revised her statement. "Alright... You would. I'm going!" Laughing, she grabbed up her gear bag and jogged out of the training room with a final wave before she disappeared around the corner.

**2171 SSV Hawking**

Samantha cruised into the medbay and dropped her gear bag on the floor. Karin glanced up to see who came in, looked at her chrono and frowned. "Samantha? What brings..." She never finished her question; as Samantha went to lean against one of the metal exam tables, a strong glowing blue biotic discharge arced from Samantha to the table and the tray of medical scanners and instruments. With a resounding 'snap,' the tray and everything on it went flying, the instruments sparking from the electrical discharge, and Samantha stumbled backwards, her eyes wide with surprise, tripped over her bag and landed hard on her backside with a loud exclamation to accompany the thump as she hit the floor, "Holy Shit!"

Every head in the medbay was suddenly focused on the walking electrical storm that had just entered. Human biotics were still a relatively new phenomena whom few people trusted, and like the witches of old, some extremists considered them oddities of nature to be locked away forever in special institutions. Samantha had been called a freak more than once as a string of blue would occasionally ripple across her skin, but nothing like this had ever happened before. Samantha actually saw fear on the faces of a couple of mothers who grabbed their children and held them close, staring at her like she was some type of monster. Terribly embarrassed by what happened, her face turned bright red, and without a word she scrambled up, grabbed her bag, and ran back out into the passage way. Karin had just stood there in shock, watching the wave of destruction, but Samantha's sudden disappearance spurred her into action and she ran out of the medbay, looking frantically around to find her quarry, finally spying her moving quickly back toward the shuttle bay. "Samantha Shepard! Don't you dare run away from me!"

Samantha froze in her tracks and turned back to see Karin hustling up the passage behind her. She hung her head sheepishly, her face still bright red. As Karin neared, the doctor slowed her approach and seeing no residual glow, tentatively reached out and laid her hand on Samantha's arm. Samantha flinched at the touch, almost expecting another blue arc of fire to shock Karin where she stood, but it didn't come. She breathed an audible sigh of relief and the red in her face started to recede. Karin's eyes reflected concern, but she gave a light-hearted chuckle. "I guess I have the answer to the question I didn't get to finish... Are you ok, Sam?"

Shepard shrugged her shoulders and sheepishly whispered, "I guess so, other than a tingling hand and an aching butt." Samantha hung her head but Karin could still see shiny eyes holding back tears. "Did you see the way those people looked at me, Aunt Karin. Like I'm a freak. A couple looked like I was going to try to eat their kids."

Karin shook her head in disgust. "You are not a freak and you know it. You're one of the best souls I know, so stop it." She gave Samantha a gently tug on the arm. "Come on. Let's head back to my office..."

She didn't finish before Samantha dug in her heels. "Uh huh. No way I'm walking back in there with all those people. Can't we go to the Mess or something?"

Karin gave her a quick hug. "Oh, come now. We'll go in through the private physician's entrance and go straight to my office. Those people out front won't ever see you." She gave Shepard a reassuring smile once she quit speaking and they slowly made their way back to Karin's office. Once they were seated, Karin handed the young biotic an electrolyte drink and folded her hands on the desk. "Well now. We've talked about this for over two years, and I guess the time has come. A small static discharge is fairly normal, but blasting apart one my med beds is a bit much." Karin couldn't help but smile at the expression of exasperation on Samantha's face. "We need to put your L3 implant in to help stabilize your power fluctuations. My guess is Arlyna is going to start you on meditation techniques, as well." Karin failed to stifle a chock of laughter as she continued, "Though I can't imagine you sitting still for that long...but you'll have to learn." Shepard looked a tad bit disgruntled, and Karin ceased trying to hold in her laughter. "Oh, don't be such a sour puss. You're going to be quite a biotic one day, Samantha. This is all just short term aggravation; you'll get over it."

"I was trying to finish up my exams first, but I guess that's not gonna happen now, is it?" Shepard had a resigned look on her face, thinking of all the wasted study time over the last few weeks.

"Why would you say that? This surgery is actually fairly routine, and it only takes a couple of hours to put the base unit in. Then we wait roughly a week to let the neural pathway links fully integrate and stabilize, and we'll be ready to plug in the L3. You can continue to study while on bed rest, and while there will be no use of biotics, you can probably start meditation lessons. I see no reason what so ever for you to reschedule your exams next month. The only day you'll lose is the actual day of the surgery." Karin could see the cogs turning in Samantha's mind as she continued to explain and saw the youth's mood get continuously lighter as their discussion continued. Once everything was fully explained and Shepard felt better about the whole process, Karin stood up. "Come on, Sam. Escort me to the shuttle and let's go talk to your mom."

While they were shuttling over to the SSV Einstein, Karin texted Arlyna and Niria to let them know what was going on and to inform them Samantha wouldn't be at training the next week with the regular class. She also asked if either of them had time for one-on-one sessions to start meditation training. The shuttle arrived and they headed down to the residential deck to catch up with Hannah. When they arrived, they walked in the door and Samantha announced their arrival, adding the fact that Karin was there as well. As Samantha threw her gear bag into her room, Hannah stepped out of hers and greeted Karin with a questioning look as she started speaking, "Do I want to know why you came home with Sam?"

As Karin prepared to answer, Samantha walked up to her mom to plant a quick kiss on her cheek. Karin's eyes got wide as she saw the blue glow start to form, but before she could shout a warning, the arc jumped from the younger Shepard to her mother with a loud crack, both Shepards jumping back with howls of surprise. Karin's mouth formed a big silent "Oh" but nothing came out of her mouth except a fit of laughter. When she calmed down enough to speak she apologized and explained to Hannah, "I'm sorry. It just seems that today is the day for answering questions with minor biotic explosions. At least she didn't fry any more medical scanners or blow the electronics out of any more of my med beds!" She was still laughing lightly as she finished speaking.

It was Hannah's turn to make the big "Oh..." but she actually said it, followed by, "...my God. Did she really?" Following a vigorous nod from Karin and an increasingly red Samantha, Hannah joined in on the laughter.

Samantha glared at them both, "I don't find it particularly funny. It hurt, and there were people in the med bay that looked at me like I was a monster come to eat the whole lot of 'em." Samantha crossed her arms and leaned against a counter, a pout set hard on her lips.

Karin continued to chuckle softly as Hannah approached her daughter like a handler approaching a wild varren. "I would like my kiss and a hug... Is it safe now?" At that, Sam had to join in the laughter and reached over, hugging her mom tight and giving her a peck on the cheek.

"I think so. Seems once I spark I'm good for a couple of hours. Karin told me I'd have to ground myself before touching anything metal, but I forgot... and what in the world do you have on you that's metal?" Samantha looked questioningly at her mother with pure stymied frustration.

Hannah laughed. "Same thing you'll have in another year." Hannah reached in the top of her shirt and tugged on a chain. "Dog tags!"


	7. A Woman in Uniform

**A Woman in Uniform**

**13 April 2172 - Arcturus Station**

Master Chief Reynolds had a big smile on his face when the door opened and Samantha Shepard walked into the recruiting station, followed by her mom. He stood up and saluted, "Commander Shepard. I've been waiting for you. I'm surprised you managed to keep her a civilian until after lunch."

Hannah laughed as she returned the salute. "Are you kidding? She was ready to be here when the doors opened at nine this morning, but with a birthday party and Easter weekend, I was just too darn tired to think about doing anything early! Besides, I'm not ready for my little girl to be all grown up just yet."

The Chief laughed, "Oh, no worries on that, Ma'am. She'll still be in your hair for another two months yet. Just because she's signing the papers today doesn't mean we'll start the next class early, just for her. Still starts on the fifteenth of June, just like it always has." He shifted his gaze to the younger Shepard, "Alright, Samantha, you ready to do this?"

Samantha stood up straight and looked Reynolds in the eye. "Absolutely, Master Chief."

"Alrighty, then. You know as a biotic, the Alliance limits your enlistment choices to Adept, Sentinel, or Vanguard. You have until the end of your second quarter to make a final choice, but do you want to make an early selection?"

Samantha looked puzzled. "Does it get me anything if I pick now?"

Reynolds shook his head. "At some point in the future it will. Once there are enough Human biotics the choices may be limited by need, but there's still so few of you, the career fields are wide open. If you don't know for sure what each is, I'd wait until you get your introductory classes and learn more about each career before you lock into one. Won't hurt you at all to delay."

Samantha glanced at her mom and got nothing but a smile and a short statement. "Don't look at me. You have to make this choice...your first of many, Sam."

Samantha laughed, "Yeah, but doesn't hurt to ask for advice when you can. I'm pretty sure I know what I want, but since it won't hurt me to wait, I'll waive the early selection, Master Chief." Even though she hadn't offered any advice, her mom nodded in approval as a smile crept across her face.

The next couple of hours were a flurry of paperwork and then uniforms issue, followed by a visit to the med bay to receive every inoculation known to mankind. Fortunately, the military provided immunity in the form of gene therapy, so it was a one-time good deal, and not a series of hyposprays or some other form of injection. Born a spacer in a military environment, Samantha figured she'd gotten everything one could get in the way of inoculations, but soon figured out typical childhood preventive medicine wasn't nearly as thorough as the full panel that was standard fare for your average Alliance marine or seaman. She also quickly discovered gene therapy wasn't painless, but at least she'd never have to go through it a second time. When they finally pushed her out the door, she had two full duffels of gear, her schedule for the first quarter and reporting instructions for classes starting mid-June.

**June 2172 - Officer Training**

Captain Steven Hackett stood stiffly in front of the newest officer accession class; twenty-eight new faces belonging to the best and the brightest humanity had to offer. "You are all here today because you have already proven your worth. You have completed all the prerequisites for entry during your secondary education. You are not here to learn about the military...drill and ceremony...how to march or how to salute...you've already done that. You are not here to learn about weapons and armaments... you've already done that. You are not here to learn about rank structures and the chain of command...you already know that. You are here to learn about leadership, about what it means to be responsible for other soldiers' lives, about what it means to order others to do something that could result in their death and to accept responsibility for those decisions...to learn about teamwork, duty, honor and integrity. You are here to learn exactly what it means to be an officer in the Systems Alliance military."

Hackett looked around the room at the students, then relaxed his posture a bit and wandered amongst them as he continued to speak. "You all have a special talent; one which I myself do not possess...you are biotics. And while still struggling to find a place in civilian society, your talents are particularly useful in a military application and you will always have a home in the Alliance. You are now part of a brotherhood in arms... an extended family of sorts, and we always take care of our own."

The Captain paused again and made eye contact with every student before continuing. "You have all completed BEST, the standard two-year Biotics Essential Skills Training. Part of your training here will expand those capabilities to fulfill a military core competency, be it as an Adept, a Vanguard, or a Sentinel. Each career path has its strengths and weaknesses, and each fills an important role in our expanding responsibilities, both in Alliance space and as the newest associate member to the Citadel Council. While most of your first quarter training will prepare you to choose which specialization you will select, one of your other first classes will be the Citadel Race Familiarization and Cultural Sensitivity Training."

Hackett's expression took on a look that brokered no argument. "Some of your guest instructors, as well as your full-time biotics instructors, are from other Council races. They will be treated with respect or you will find your tenure here woefully short. Our growing role in an expanding galactic environment means we will need to work cooperatively with newly encountered races. That starts here."

The Captain returned to the front of the room and turned back to the class one last time and put a smile on his face. "I expect the best of all of our new students and I am rarely disappointed. You are the future leadership of the Alliance. Do me proud. Give the program your all, and do yourselves proud!"

* * *

For the first time since her exposure to eezo, Shepard found herself the youngest member of an accepting group of friends who didn't consider her a freak. She'd had acquaintances in her biotics training with other BEST students, but few of them had wanted to join the Alliance military, and they had all been utero exposures who manifested at puberty, so they had been younger than her by two or three years. The group in the current officer training class ranged in age from her eighteen years to a guy named Theodor 'Teddy' Madison, who was almost twenty-four. He had been at BAaTT when it was shut down in 2169 and had apparently taken time off in an attempt to get over what had occurred there. He had finally decided to join the Alliance military, but the entire class realized he hadn't gotten past his experiences at BAaTT during the Race Familiarization Training when he verbally assaulted the guest Turian instructor. After refusing to attend anger management counseling or issue an apology to the instructor, Madison was the first student to experience the reality of Hackett's warning of a short tenure, and before the first month was complete, the class already numbered one less.

The second student lost to the group weighed heavily on Shepard's soul; his name was Michael O'Donnell. Mike was nineteen, a happy go lucky guy who was always clowning around, and was Shepard's 'buddy' in training. They had a similar sense of humor, had both grown up as spacers and both liked weapons. They often talked late into the night, studied together, and both had planned to be normal soldiers until their biotic manifestations. Mike's parents were scientists, currently on a research vessel out in the Kepler Verge, so both Hannah and Karin treated him as a long-lost son, giving him a place to get away from training on short holidays and long weekends.

Shepard and O'Donnell were frequently training partners in biotics class and they were almost always together, leading to some interesting rumors. They scoffed at anyone hinting at more than friendship between them; that was one of the things that made them such great friends and so competitive in the class... there were no sexual overtones or distractions with their friendship and they were able to concentrate completely on the tasks at hand. Military life was fairly regimented, and as best friends, Samantha and Mike had settled into a comfortable routine. Every day started with an early morning run on the obstacle course, then showers, and then they would all meet again for breakfast before reporting to class. It was the Thursday before the long holiday weekend heralding Jon Grissom's roundtrip through the Charon Relay and everyone was in a good mood as their physical training began. They started the course with a soft jog to get warmed up, running over some low balance beams, the rope swing across the water and then navigated the hand rings before finally coming to the low wall. It took a team effort to get the first person to the top, and then they quickly pitched everyone over the wall. Shepard was the lightest of the group yet fairly tall, so she was the last one to go because she could jump up and clasp hands to be pulled over the easiest.

After a bit more running and then some low crawling under high barrier obstacles, they came to the high wall. It consisted of five different platforms with ropes and nets to climb and run across to navigate the various levels. Once on the top, a zip line fell off the far side, breaching the high wall and sending the students screaming down to the obstacle course finish line. Mike laughed as he scaled the first couple of nets like a monkey and quickly outpaced Shepard. She was laughing at his antics and shouting at him to wait up. He stopped on the second highest platform to wait on her and was joking around when he spun and smacked his forehead on a beam. Samantha watched in horror as Mike staggered back and fell backwards off the platform. She screamed his name while trying to call up a biotic lift, but she was tired and hadn't prepped her biotics at all so was trying to generate power from a cold start. It didn't work, and she ran towards him, completely helpless to break his fall, watching as a cloud of dust rose when he hit the ground. An instructor and a couple other students were at his side immediately and Shepard slid on her knees to his side merely seconds later, just in time to see the light fade from his eyes.

The instructor and other students ceased to exist, her world fading to nothing but Mike's face, shockingly devoid of any spark of life. Samantha stared at his face for some unknown period of time before the reality crashed in that Michael was truly dead; she spun to the side, attempting to scramble to her feet, but only managing to stumble off to the side, back to her knees, and she wretched in the bushes beside the trail. Samantha sat motionless and stared, unfocused, at the ground before her while guilt ran rampant through her mind; it was such a stupid thing, such a tragic consequence for a few seconds of inattention. You always watch out for your buddy, you don't go anywhere without them, you take care of them and they take care of you...only Shepard failed to take care of Mike on the obstacle course. She shouldn't have let him fool around on the high wall...she should have kept up with him and she should have kept him from falling. She hadn't been there when Mike had needed her most.

* * *

Shepard had no recollection of how she got back to her dorm, but when her eyes focused again she found herself in familiar surroundings, sitting in the common room. What was unusual was the Captain standing in the room with her, his back to her as he stared out the window. Shepard immediately bolted to attention and croaked out, "Sorry Sir! Didn't see you come in, Sir!"

Captain Hackett started at the sudden voice behind him and turned to face the distraught cadet. He studied the young face before him and sighed at the stress written in the furrowed brow and shouting from the cloudy eyes that were finally focused back on the here and now. Her recovery was quicker than he had anticipated, based on the reports from the instructor who was on scene at the accident. Hackett knew this student was no stranger to death, which was the only reason he was waiting with her in the dorms instead of her being in the hospital under observation. It was a temporary solution, one he wanted to attend to personally, while her mother was enroute from the SSV Einstein. "Cadet Shepard. I assume you know why I'm here."

Shepard swallowed the bile in her throat and responded, "Yes, Sir." Hackett said nothing, just raised his eyebrows in expectation of more. Shepard cleared her throat and continued roughly, "I let my buddy down and now a cadet is dead, Sir."

Hackett shook his head. "This isn't your fault, Shepard. Sometimes things just happen. You've run that course every morning since you've been here. Each and every one of you is familiar with the course, all familiar with the obstacles... And the instructor reported you made repeated requests for Cadet O'Donnell to slow down and wait for you." An angry look flashed across Shepard's face, but as she opened her mouth to protest, Hackett cut her off and continued. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this was his fault, either. No one planned it, nobody expected it, no one caused it. It was an accident. It may not have been his fault, but it certainly wasn't yours." Hackett paused for a moment before continuing, "Please, have a seat." He moved to a chair close to Shepard and dropped into it unceremoniously, releasing a heavy sigh. Once Samantha dropped back onto the couch, he continued. "Death is a hard thing, and I know that you, unfortunately, are no stranger to it. I know about your father. He was a good man."

Shepard's eyes welled with tears which she blinked rapidly away, setting her jaw firm and refusing to give in to her emotions. Hackett nodded in recognition of the brave face she put forward as he continued. "Just so you know, we've contacted your mother and she's on her way." He paused, as if contemplating what he wanted to say next. "Your instructors told me you were particularly close with Cadet O'Donnell. You'll be excused from classes the rest of today, but you have a choice to make during the upcoming long weekend. It's not much time, but it's more than you would normally get under these circumstances, being a non-relative of the deceased. At any point in the first quarter, you can leave, and start again in the next year's class without any penalty, or you can stay and continue classes. I'm sorry if that seems cold, but that's one of the things about the military. We are expected to deal quickly with death and move on with the mission. We don't always have the luxury of stopping when a soldier next to us dies."

As Hackett paused, Shepard took advantage of the gap to speak. "Sir, Cadet O'Donnell and I were just friends. Great friends, but none the less, just friends. You may have heard there was more to it, but it was only rumor. Joining the Alliance is something I've wanted as long as I can remember, and Mike would be incredibly disappointed in me if I delayed that dream on account of him." She swallowed hard and pressed on, making eye contact with the Captain sitting across from her. "I'll take the weekend with my mom, but I'll be back in class on Tuesday, Sir."

Hackett rose as Shepard finished, seeing Hannah step through the doorway at the far side of the room. He spoke as he waved at Samantha to remain seated. "As you were, Cadet." He looked toward Hannah and spoke gently, "I'll leave your daughter in your very capable hands, Commander. Always a pleasure to see you; I only wish it were under better circumstances." He could see the concern on her face as he stopped to shake hands on the way out the door. His voice was nearly a whisper, "She's a strong one, Hannah. She'll be fine...You've raised quite a daughter." He nodded one last time to her and quickly took his leave, leaving mother and daughter alone in the common room.

Samantha rose from her seat when she heard Hackett greet her mother and turned to face her. Once the captain left the room, Samantha looked to her mother. "Commander."

Hannah slowly approached her daughter and took in her stature and the expression on her face. "Cadet. You look tired."

A twitch of a smile appeared on Samantha's face, "You look stressed."

"I have cause. I have you as a daughter."

"Yeah, well, I ..." Samantha's voice cracked and she stopped speaking for a moment as what little existed of a smile vanished and the normal banter died on her lips. Her voice dropped to a harsh whisper. "I let Mike down, Mom." Tears welled and she shook her head in disbelief and anger. "I wasn't there to catch him..."

Hannah immediately stepped forward and enveloped her daughter in a loving embrace. "I know, baby. I know." Hannah held Samantha close as her daughter finally let go and cried into her shoulder. "You and I are both well aware that sometimes things we don't want to happen just do... and we take from them what we can and press on. I heard what you said to Captain Hackett, about Mike wanting you to keep on, and I agree with you. He'd be angry if you quit now, because of what happened." Hannah pushed Samantha out to arms length, but kept a firm grip on her daughter's shoulders. "So, let's get your stuff for the weekend and head home, shall we?"

With a nod from Samantha, they headed out, arm-in-arm; each dealing in their own way with the loss of someone who had become an important part of their lives, comforted by the knowledge that no matter what else happened, they still had each other and they would continue on. After all, they were Shepards.


	8. Blaze of Glory

**Notes: Special thanks go to fellow author Elizabeth Carter for permission to use her "echo game" from her Samantha Shepard 'Phoenix' series ('Rising from the Ashes' ch 13, if you want to find it).**

* * *

**Blaze of Glory**

**November 2172 - Arcturus Station**

Second quarter training revolved mostly around biotic generalized specialty orientation. No matter what specialty the student planned on selecting, the Alliance felt it was necessary for biotics to understand all the skill sets and know what advantages and limitations each brought to the fight.

Adepts were the ultimate biotics; wearing light armor and normally carrying only a pistol, they were masters of dark energy, leaning almost entirely on the raw strength of their biotic abilities to carry them through the fight, on both the offensive and defensive side of the battle. Adepts focused on the mid-range battle because their light armor made hand-to-hand dangerous and longer ranges limited biotics effectiveness. Adepts were generally responsible for controlling the pace of the battle by influencing enemy effectiveness via lifts, throws, singularities and stasis applications while protecting friendly forces with barriers. Of the three classes available, their skill set offered the widest application of pure biotic power.

While generally lacking the pure raw power of an Adept, Sentinels made up the difference by being more versatile, adding in tech skills to disable and track enemy forces, kinetic barriers to protect the team and advanced medical training to help heal team members as required. They generally focused on combat support, operated from the rear and wore light armor. They also utilized a pistol and brought critical electronics skills to the effort, improving chances of hacking security systems, door locks and other electronics. Sentinels also had the option to further specialize into offensive or defensive roles, becoming Bastions or Medics, depending on whether their talents fell along technical or medical lines.

Lastly was the Vanguard. More of a traditional soldier, Vanguards were known to be quick and brutal in their attacks. Definitely a frontline soldier, Vanguards utilized a wide range of weapons and armor, augmented by a full range of offensive biotic skills that allow the Vanguard to close quickly on an enemy. Specializing at short range and hand-to-hand combat, they are known for their high-risk, high-reward combat style. With her love of weapons, this was where Shepard wanted to be; she just couldn't see herself in the mid-range battle or in a support roll. She needed to be on the front lines, leading the charge. She was comfortable in the biotics training area, having spent the last three years already studying under Huntress Arlyna Sheya, so had no fear in her ability to master the skills required.

The first four months of their training had been focused on the basic mechanics of each of the biotic powers, first learning how to perform each skill, and then working on the intensity and duration of the effects. By the month of November, all of the students had the necessary proficiency to begin working strictly on the military applications of biotic power. The class started out working against still targets and then mechs, gradually progressing in the level of difficulty. They divided up into groups based on their preferred specialty; fourteen students wanted to be Adepts, eight wanted to be Sentinels and the remaining four, Shepard included, wanted to be Vanguards. The Adepts practiced against each other under the strict supervision of the instructors, breaking into pairs and taking turns working on various attacks and barriers. The Sentinels practiced their tech skills, attempting to hack an assortment of locks, electronics, turret controls and mechs, and also practiced their battlefield first aid skills on various medical dummies and any students who happened to be injured during training.

The Vanguards ran a different training scenario; their training was limited to dummies because of the high risk of injury and the high cost of replacing all the mechs that would be destroyed. The instructors did tell them, however, they could face live targets during portions of the testing and selection phase. That caused consternation among two of the four, complaining it was unfair that the first time they faced a particular enemy would be at their test. Shepard rolled her eyes, knowing the huntresses' reactions to such statements would be far from favorable, and she was not surprised when Niria Phessi stepped forward, glowering at their small group. The huntress glared at them, speaking in a serious tone, "So you expect the enemy to inform you what they will bring to bear against you, before they do so? The Vanguard by nature is high risk. If you are not willing to accept it, then you have chosen the wrong specialty."

The two grumbled between themselves, but made no additional spoken complaints. The other potential Vanguard, Bobby Stone, cast a sidelong glance at Shepard, grinning and with a twinkle in his eye. He knew the pseudo-reprimand was coming as well, but also knew those two in particular had complained at nearly every stage of training throughout the course of the class, so didn't expect anything to change now. Shepard flashed a grin in response, and they headed to the far side of the room to start their new individual training regimens. As the month passed, Stone and Shepard became good friends, always selecting adjacent training booths and talking during rest periods, swapping tips and hints they got from the instructors as they practiced. Shepard discovered Stone's father and grandfather had both fought in the first contact war, and Bobby wanted to follow the family tradition of being a front line soldier. Shepard understood that motivation quite well, but still wondered about his true capacity to kill an enemy. Shepard's experiences had given her a core rage that she could rely on, a deep anger that could be released as necessary to not only defend herself, but to take another's life in an offensive capacity at the mere thought these people would want to hurt someone close to her. Her life experiences had turned her into a natural protector. Bobby had never experienced such a close and personal loss and still possessed a more gentle soul, and Shepard privately wondered if he had it in him to actually kill anyone. Regardless, they trained side-by-side in preparation for testing day, and when it came they would be either ready or not, and their futures in the Alliance would be decided one way or another.

**December 2172 - Specialty Qualification and Selection**

The next few days would determine whether or not Shepard could pursue her chosen career path in the Alliance; though every instinct told her she should be nervous, Shepard just plain wasn't. The students had been told the selection panel was made up of three Alliance Navy biotics and three Alliance Marine commanders, whose sole purpose was to evaluate each student's potential in their preferred specialty and either concur with the choice or recommend another path they felt the student should pursue based on their skill set strengths. Being relatively small in stature for a Vanguard, Shepard knew she faced an uphill battle to convince the three big burly Marines she was cut out to be a front line soldier. She had the distinct advantage of having trained under the huntresses for three years, and not just in biotics. She had also been taught meditation and concentration techniques and various forms of martial arts, excellent for hand-to-hand and melee confrontations; forms the Alliance testers were not familiar with, and she planned to use those skills to her advantage.

The generic skills testing began with the students on a range, going against sensors that scored the accuracy and strength of each attack, methodically progressing through every offensive skill. A sensor would pop up and the student would have to react with the designated maneuver within a certain period of time before the target disappeared. After a very short standardized recovery period, the next sensor would pop up and the student had to again attack the target with the next selected offensive skill. After running the gambit of all the established offensive maneuvers, the pattern repeated for a total of three cycles, each cycle having less recovery time between skills, purposely intended to run the students to their point of failure, to establish their level of endurance. The same type of repeat testing was then completed for defensive skills to test the strength and durability of their barriers. Since each test worked the students to the point of exhaustion, each test consumed an entire day, after which they were allowed to eat and sleep, to resume the testing the next day after the students had the chance to fully recover.

The third day began the specific specialty testing. Captain Hackett was present and addressed the group before they got started. Every eye was on him as he walked to the front of the room and turned to address the students. He clasped his hands behind his back, and his head was down in contemplation as he began. "Now that your general skills testing and grading is complete, today begins your specialty testing. Some of you may not end up in the specialty you desire, but do not consider this a failure. Our goal here today is to merge hopes with reality. We will not force you to another specialty just because we think you could perform another better; we will only recommend you consider the one for which we feel you may be better suited. The final choice remains yours. As long as the panel feels you have the capacity to succeed in the career path you have selected, you will be awarded that specialty."

Hackett's head came up and he looked over each student before he continued, "However, you also need to realize our mission in general is to protect Alliance interests, and it is in the Alliance's interest, as well as your own, to keep each and every one of you alive and battle worthy. To that end, if we feel you are truly not suited to perform the specialty you initially selected, your choice will be removed and we will direct you to another career path. At that point, you will have two options; either you accept our judgment and train in this alternate specialty, or we will release you from any obligation and you walk away free and clear. At the end of the week, should you choose to walk, you forfeit any opportunity to ever serve in the Alliance military; you will not be allowed to return."

Hackett strolled amongst the students, looking at each of them in turn. "Today and tomorrow, you will be tested. Once testing is complete, you will all be counseled individually, in private, in alphabetical order. You will then have until the end of Friday to decide what you want to do. Speak with whomever you wish to speak with and ask whatever questions you want to ask, but you must render your decision to the panel before 1600 hours on Friday. At that time, if you plan to stay, you will sign a service commitment contract for a minimum of five years. If you decide to leave, you have until lights-out on Sunday to turn in all your gear and vacate the dormitory." Hackett returned to the front of the room and looked over the twenty six students once more. "The testing times were drawn randomly; the complete schedule is posted on the announcement board. Good luck to all of you." With that, Hackett turned and went to speak to the panel members while the students scrambled to figure out when they had to test.

Just like every other student, Shepard went immediately to the announcement board to look over the test times; they were thirty minute blocks, the first test of the day was at 0900 hours, the last started at 1730 hours. As soon as she found her name, Shepard groaned. She had hoped she didn't end up going first, but she hadn't wanted to go last either, and that was where she ended up, not until 1230 hours the next day. _Crap! Twenty-sixth in the line-up!_ She noticed Bobby would be testing fourteenth, at 1530 hours, so she grabbed him and asked if he wanted to practice any moves in particular. Typical Bobby, he just laughed, saying if he didn't have the skills to at least demonstrate potential, he never would, and he would rather enter the test rested.

Shepard smiled at her friend, gripped his hand and wished him luck before turning and heading out to the training rooms. It was still early, so she knew the first-year students would be there until 1000 hours, but figured Arlyna wouldn't mind if she sat in the corner meditating until the class cleared out. After meditation, her plan was to run through all the basic control exercises and then see if she could get Arlyna to run a round of the Echo Game for her. The morning didn't go quite as predicted; Arlyna took the opportunity to demonstrate the game to the new students and Shepard immediately found herself in the center of spacious dual rings of twelve drums each, one circle inside the other. In the inner circle, each drum was suspended in the air by a narrow pole that towered just over two meters. The outer circle of drums resembled Japanese taiko drums, each with a student ready to play it as a distraction to whoever was attempting the echo game challenge. Arlyna had described the challenge to the students and instructed them on their part as a diversion. Arlyna stood between two drums on the inner circle with a bowl of dried beans and Shepard stood in the center of the circle, blindfolded.

Arlyna would start the game by flicking a single bean at one of the drums, after which Shepard would be required to locate and strike the drum with a very mild biotic pulse, echoing the sound of the bean. Each successive turn, the number of beans would increase and the number of drums each bean would strike before dropping to the floor could also increase. A player's skill was built up over time, first learning to accomplish the feat blindfolded, then eventually establishing the ability to focus well enough to discern the difference between the echo drums and the taiko drums to correctly follow the pattern of the echoes. The skills learned made a warrior able to continue a fight blind, unimpeded by smoke, haze, heavy gunfire and even tactical cloaks, by relying on sound, not sight.

Arlyna asked Shepard if she was ready and the student turned toward the instructor's voice and touched her right-hand finger tips to her forehead before she lowered her hand out flat, palm up, in the Asari salute of respect. Shepard then assumed a battle-ready stance, and with a quick nod to Arlyna the game began. The huntress took a single bean from the bowl and flicked it at a drum, resulting in a dull thud as it bounced off the face of the drum and hit the floor. Shepard spun and sent a pulse to the drum, successfully echoing the bean. Arlyna picked up two beans and, using her biotics, bounced each off of two drums as a single student started to also drum on the taiko drums. Shepard's focus was unbroken and she successfully copied the four echo drumbeats. Each round added more beans, more strikes, and more students drumming the taiko drums from the sides, with Shepard spinning, tumbling and doing backflips as necessary to successfully keep track of the proper sequence of echoes. Shepard's focus remained unbroken until the beans numbered an even dozen, with thirty-six strikes. When Shepard stumbled and missed a drum during the last round, she stopped and removed her blindfold, turning toward her instructor and saluting once again. She bowed her head and waited for permission to break the circle.

The huntress looked proudly around the circle at the amazed expressions of the first-year students as she spoke, "Cadet Shepard has studied biotics and meditation with me for just shy of four years, and this is the result. Do not think any lesser of yourself because you are not a natural born biotic...the only limits you face are those that you impose upon yourself." She then looked to Shepard. "Thank you, _sim're_, for an excellent demonstration. That was your highest count yet to date. The basic skills testing has you very well focused and I have every confidence you will do well on your specialty selection exam. When do you test?"

Shepard raised her head, smiling at the praise. "Thank you, _ai'a me_. I don't test until last, at 12:30 tomorrow afternoon." Her smile faltered as she continued, "I had really hoped to test today and be done with it."

Arlyna cast Shepard a gentle smile and then dismissed her first-year students for the day. She looked to Shepard and held her hand out in invitation. "Come, young one. Let us go get some tea and talk. I believe more than meditation or training, you need distraction."

* * *

Shepard stood ready on the testing floor after selecting a shotgun and heavy pistol as her standard weapons, along with her omnitool; the panel of six sat above her on an observation deck outside the edge of the arena awaiting her signal of readiness to begin. She had received her gear and instructions for the test and had been somewhat surprised. The instructions had been amazingly simple, yet amazingly vague at the same time. "You are an Alliance Vanguard facing rogue defense mechs. Do what needs to be done." Shepard hesitated only momentarily before punching the start button under the viewing platform with her fist, then moving quickly to cover. She thought about the Sentinel test; they were probably expected to hack the mechs and shut them down, but Shepard was a Vanguard, so the reasonable assumption was she should destroy them. Her ruminations about Sentinels and Vanguards vanished when she heard a door open somewhere in front of her.

She peeked around the corner and saw only two security mechs with standard issue pistols. Calling on her biotics, she lit up blue and vanished in a charge of biotic power before they had a chance to separate, careening into the first mech and smashing it into oblivion. At the same time, she pulled up her shotgun and quickly dispatched the second mech with a headshot. She immediately rolled to a ready position as a synthesized voice came over her radio, "Intruder detected. Security mechs deployed to zone three."

Shortly after the announcement, Shepard heard doors on each side of the room open so she quickly worked her way to the left side where she had heard the first mechanical footfall. She was rewarded by a mech stepping around the corner as it raised its pistol. Before it got a shot off, Shepard had destroyed it with a second headshot and she rolled around the barricade with her biotics ready. A second mech had entered but it hadn't yet even turned to face her when she warped it into the wall. Moving quickly, she crossed the center aisle and glanced across the room, trying to locate the mechs that had entered from the other side of the room. Failing to locate them visually, she moved carefully to a more central position along the right-hand wall and froze, gently closing her eyes and concentrating on sound. The mechs weren't moving forward, but she could hear servos spinning, like they were turning their heads trying to locate her. All the obstacles in the arena prevented her from pinpointing exactly where they were, but the servo noise gave her a very good indication as to their general direction. Knowing where they entered the room and the direction they had headed, it was easy enough to circle around behind them and blast them from behind.

As she moved back to cover once again toward the left-hand wall expecting more mechs, one of the panel members spoke into the comm. "Cadet Shepard. You must now exit the room at the door opposite where you came in. You must penetrate a defended pirate safe house and take out the pirate captain on the second floor."

Shepard slowly worked her way to the door, carefully tapping the entry pad and then stepping to the side so she was covered as it opened. She peeked in around the corner and a sniper shot pinged off her shield, dropping it to half strength, but not before she got a look in the room and saw something she didn't really expect... people. _Live people, not mechs! _Shepard stalled for time to allow her shields to rebuild and tapped her comm, speaking quietly, "Sir, request verification of orders to terminate targets?"

Shepard drew in a quick breath between her teeth when she heard the response. "Affirmative, Vanguard. They are pirates. Terminate with extreme prejudice."

_So be it. Hope I'm not charged with murder when this is over... _"Roger that, Sir."

To prepare herself, Shepard thought about her father and then pictured the two guards before her in Cerberus armor. Shepard called up her biotics and charged all the way to the safe house door, closing on the two outside guards quickly while cutting the angle so the sniper couldn't pin her down anywhere along the way. She smashed into the first guard, sending him flying, then turned and quickly blasted the second with her shotgun. They were both heavily shielded, so neither died on first contact. She promptly dropped down and leg-swept the guard who was staggered from the shotgun blast, swiftly ripping her omniblade across his exposed throat to finish him off, saving her biotics for her next strike. She spun around to locate her charge victim and caught motion over her head with her peripheral vision. She hastily cast a biotic throw above her head, yanking the exposed sniper out of the window and tossing him across the field into a barricade. Her eyes snapped back to her original target just in time to see his SMG coming to bear right at her chest plate; she hit the ground rolling and closed the distance, pegging him in the chest with her shotgun before he laid enough firepower on her shield to make it drop.

As the last outside guard fell, Shepard confiscated two flash-bang grenades from his ammo belt, then continued past him along the wall to the next window and peeked inside. There was no one left on the ground floor, so she circled to the back door and crept inside, moving cautiously to the stairwell. She glanced up the stairs and saw nothing as far as the corner, so she started up slowly, moving as quietly as she could and calling up her biotics, fully expecting someone to pop around the corner when she got halfway up. Surprisingly, nothing happened until she reached the corner, when a flash-bang rolled down the steps and stopped on the corner landing. Shepard didn't hesitate; she lunged and grabbed the grenade, lobbing it quickly back up the steps while closing her eyes as tightly as she possibly could. Even so, she saw the bright flash through her eyelids, but at least it didn't temporarily blind her. The explosion in the closed hallway made her ears ring, so she wouldn't be relying on sound to tip her off any time in the near future, most likely for the remainder of her test. It seemed to her the thirty minute block should be up, but she knew that five minutes in any stressful situation could seem like an eternity; she didn't want to think how long thirty minutes in a firefight would seem.

Regardless of the time remaining, Shepard was determined to finish the mission. She leaned around the corner and saw nothing; she raised her shotgun and crept up the steps to the next landing. When she arrived, she realized she was at the top of the steps with a blind corner that opened to a back room. She edged over and peered around the corner and saw two large barricades, one on each sided of the hallway, with a guard atop each. She figured the pirate captain had a personal guard, and must be somewhere farther back in the room. She set her shotgun on the floor within easy reach and pulled out her heavy pistol. Reaching out with a biotic lift, she grabbed one of the guards and picked him completely above the barricade, easily killing him with a heavy pistol shot to the head. The second guard immediately hunkered down where Shepard couldn't see him, and hence couldn't grab him with biotics. She holstered her pistol and rolled one of her stolen flash-bangs down the hall; the second it exploded, she grabbed her shotgun and charged up to the barricade, stopping just short of ramming into it. The guard was very surprised when instead of shooting him, she reached around the barricade and biotically yanked him off his perch onto the floor, promptly crushing his windpipe with an elbow thrust.

After peeking around the corner, Shepard prepped her biotics for one last charge. The pirate captain was huge and there was no doubt she was going to have to hit him hard and fast to have any chance of taking him down; her only chance was to hit him first and give him no chance to recover. She threw her last flash-bang into the room at his feet, flipped the visor on her armor to max dark and charged the second she saw the captain start to dodge. Everything was in motion at once. The flash-bang exploded as the captain tried to dive off to the side. His large bulk was already in motion, so when Shepard hit him at max charge velocity, he practically ricocheted off the wall. Using her entire reserve for the super-charge, Shepard held nothing back for shields; it had been an all or nothing gambit. As soon as the captain hit the floor, Shepard blasted him with her shotgun, the first shot gone before the blaze even died from the flash-bang. She fired her shotgun as fast as it would fire, until it was empty. Many long moments later, he was dead and Shepard's world dissolved around her.

She looked around, somewhat stunned, quickly realizing the entire time she had been in a damn simulator. She breathed a huge sigh of relief, confirming in her mind that she had not really killed anyone just for the sake of a test, but knowing in her heart she could have done so had a real-world mission asked it of her. Her ears were still ringing, making it somewhat difficult to hear, but she managed to make out from the seemingly garbled transmission in her headset that she was supposed to return through the door to the training arena.

* * *

Shepard's turn for her evaluation came around relatively quickly, even though she was late in the alphabet; she figured it was a good thing, because it told her the evaluations were mostly quick and painless. The one notable exception had been one of the four Vanguard testers, a guy named Jack Valley, one of the grumblers. When the counselor in the individual session advised him he needed to change his specialty selection and the panel recommended a Sentinel Bastion position, he exploded in anger and had to be forcibly removed from the room when he was crazy enough to try to attack the evaluator. When Shepard stepped into the room, she was met by one of the three big burly marines, who stood as she entered and offered his hand, introducing himself as Major Stevenson. She was surprised at the casualness of the big man's approach, but calmly stepped forward and shook his hand as he said his hellos and asked her to take a seat.

He sat back down on his chair and placed his elbows on his desk, his hands steepled before him, one hand wrapped inside the other as he started to speak. "Cadet Shepard. I requested to be the one to provide your debrief, and I did so for a couple of reasons. First off, I didn't believe you had the stature or strength to do the job of a Vanguard, and openly told the others so before your test even began." He saw the look of incredulity on Shepard's face and grinned. "Yup. I did, but don't get angry at me. I'm very willing to admit when I make a mistake, which is what I'm doing now, as well as apologizing to you for prejudging your abilities. I've either worked with or personally evaluated every Vanguard to come through Alliance training for the last eight years, and I'm here to tell you, you have the potential to be the best damn Vanguard I've ever seen. Hell, you'd be better than a third of those I have in the field if you were to graduate right now, and you haven't even started your real specialty training yet." He paused for a moment, watching the smile grow on the cadet's face. "Any questions on my first reason for wanting to talk to you?"

Shepard sat quiet for a second, trying to decide just how bold she wanted to be, when curiosity got the better of her and she spit her question out. "Yes, Sir. After watching me for less than ten hours, spread out over three days, what makes you say that I'm the best?"

The major barked out a loud, hard laugh before he answered. "For that, right there! Most would just say 'thank you' and move on. But you? Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead...you're fucking fearless, Shepard. Maybe because you've got the stick to back it up, because you're also smart, resourceful, and a hell of a biotic. You could have easily gone pure adept and been the strongest of the class, but you didn't. You picked a specialty that was going to put you on the front line, jumping with both feet straight into the fray." He shook his head and laughed some more. "We picked the biggest, baddest character model in the sim for that damn pirate captain. Most people are so scared of him they sit back and chisel at his shields until their time or their ammo runs out. Some manage to get his shields down and then die on the charge because they don't have enough biotics left to do any real damage. You? You fucking did an all or nothing charge straight down the gauntlet, right into the mouth of the beast... and pulled it off! In ten years, only a handful of people have ever beaten 'the captain,' and none have ever made it look so fracking easy. You made me eat some serious crow from the other panel members."

After a brief pause to let Shepard absorb what he said, and to see if she had any more questions, the major continued. "Reason number two for me wanting to do your eval? I want to hire you. You're good now and by the time you get done with training, you're going to be downright deadly. I work in First Fleet on the SSV Leipzig; I command the Rapid Response Team. If shit goes down anywhere in Alliance space, except for the unlucky bastard who happens to already be sitting there, we're the first into the zone, the first unit to put boots on the ground. We need people like you. When you graduate in six months at the top of your class, a lot of folks are going to ask for you. They'll come courting with fancy promises of great training opportunities and maybe even a few bribes. I'm not giving you any of that. I'm offering an honest job with real danger, straight to the front line of the next fight we find ourselves in. If that's what you want, you pick the First Fleet RRT. That's all I got for ya." The major stood up and walked toward the door.

Shepard stood to follow him, but he suddenly pulled up short and looked back at her, his face turning a little red. "Oh, yeah. One more thing. You got selected as a Vanguard by the way. So, you can stay and train as one or you can walk away free and clear, seeing as you have no commitment yet."

Shepard laughed and stuck out her hand to the major. As they shook, he was smiling. She grinned and started to speak, "Sir, I accept your offer to be a Vanguard, and I'll be in first thing in the morning to sign my contract. I'll also give serious consideration to your offer to join First Fleet, but that's six months down the road. I jump when it's time to jump. A lot can change between now and then, and jumping early or late can get you killed. I'll wait for the right time to make that call."

Stevenson laughed and clapped her on the back as she left. "Either way, Cadet, I'm sure I'll see you at graduation in June."

When it was all said and done, the class finished with thirteen Adepts, ten Sentinels, and only two Vanguards; after the incident with Cadet Valley, the panel met with Captain Hackett and they reconsidered their opinion...not about Valley being a Vanguard, but to declare him non-suitable for military service; he was told to hit the road, as he was not Alliance material. Comparatively speaking, everyone else's session was quiet and quick. A few Sentinels and Adepts had traded places and the second Vanguard who didn't pass his test was Bobby; he ended up as a Sentinel. It turned out he just didn't have it in him to take a human life, so he had to move to a support role and he opted for the medical track. The twenty five remaining students were all happy to have made the grade, had all signed their commitment contracts, and would all be back in class the following Monday to start their specialized training. Considering what Major Stevenson had told her, Shepard could hardly wait.


	9. Welcome to the Real World

**Notes: ****This one is really long for a 'QuickShot' but I got started and it just took on a life of its own. I couldn't stop the runaway train. Hope you enjoy!**

**RRT - Rapid Response Team**

** FTL - Faster Than Light travel**

** FNG - F***ing New Guy**

* * *

**Welcome to the Real World**

**September 2173 - SSV Leipzig, First Fleet**

Shepard had just finished her work out and was digging her shower gear out of her locker when a wadded up towel smacked her on the back of the head. "Hey loser. Have a good workout?"

Shepard jumped up and quickly twisted the damp towel, attempting to snap the antagonist, but her squad leader, Marine Captain Sharon Culver, had already stepped out of reach, laughing. "Gotta be faster than that, Shepard!" She quit laughing and her eyes got big when a ball of blue energy suddenly enveloped her and her feet left the deck...

Shepard liked the captain; she had met Culver a few months prior, after she took Major Stevenson up on his offer and joined the RRT on the SSV Leipzig. As soon as Shepard had graduated in June, the Major had immediately assigned her to Culver's squad; the squad's last Vanguard had been killed on a mission chasing pirates in the Terminus and Stevenson was overjoyed to get Shepard as the replacement. Since then, however, Shepard had received multiple lessons in frustration; primarily because the squad had gotten along well with the guy who held the job previously and as of yet didn't trust the newbie straight from school. What few missions they had been assigned, by the time they arrived on site, the pirates or slavers were on their way off planet, so the ground team saw nothing but the taillights, meaning they had yet to see how Shepard performed in the field. It didn't matter how many times she hit the bull's-eyes on the range, how much weight she could push on the machines, or even how many rounds she won against her squad mates in the hand-to-hand arena... until they saw how she performed under the baptism of fire, she was still the FNG... As the FNG, she got thrown all the crap details, all the gopher jobs, all the extra security and escort duties assigned to the squad. As far as Shepard was concerned, being the FNG in a squad on the Leipzig was as bad as being back in basic training.

Shepard strolled over to where the captain was floating in her lift, reached in and grabbed her ankle. Culver's eyes narrowed and she growled, "Don't you dare!"

Shepard grinned wickedly and gave the captain's ankle an upward tug, setting Culver into an uncontrolled spin, smirking as the good captain started to cuss her out. "God damn it, Shepard! Let me down!" After a few fairly quick rotations, Culver started to plead, "Oh God! Shepard! Stop! I'm gonna puke!"

Finally feeling sorry for her team lead, and figuring she was probably in enough trouble, Shepard reached in and grabbed a foot, stopped the rotation and gently pushed the captain's feet toward the floor. Once Culver was floating upright, Shepard released the lift and caught the dizzy Marine, keeping her from falling over. Culver wobbled weakly over to a bench and plopped down, almost missing the seat. She put her head in her hands and grumbled, "Damn it. It's been too long since I've done zero-G training. I should put you on mid-watch for that, Ensign."

Shepard shrugged indifferently, "Already am, ma'am."

"Fine. Then I'll put you in dress blues and make you escort the damn Admiral's tour next week."

Shepard grimaced, "Yeah, I'm already doing that, too."

Culver's eyes narrowed again as she grumped at the ensign, looking for some way to get even. "Dining hall clean up with the Mess Sergeant?"

Shepard gave up and sat down on the bench next to Culver, looking glum as she answered again, "Doing that as well, Captain."

Culver's brow furrowed in thought for a few moments before she asked, "Is there any detail you _don't_ have right now?"

Shepard's eyes fell to the floor, hoping the captain wouldn't see the disappointment in her face, while at the same time dreading the assignment of yet another detail. "I don't have to run the trash compactor and recyclers this week."

Culver looked puzzled. "Alpha squad doesn't have that this month..."

Shepard shrugged, "I know. That's why I don't have it...yet...ma'am."

The captain's face got serious. "You telling me you're doing every additional duty the squad is assigned right now?" After a short silence, the captain growled, "Ensign, answer the question."

Shepard sighed before answering quietly, "Yes, ma'am."

Culver abruptly stood up. "Well, shit. How long's that been going on?"

Shepard stood when the captain did, and renewed eye contact to answer the question, hearing something new in Culver's voice...disappointment? Displeasure? Regret? "I'm the FNG. Ever since I completed my in-processing, ma'am."

Culver was standing straight up now, her eyes focused intensely on her young ensign. "How much sleep you are getting a night?"

Shepard wrinkled her face as if in distaste, "Three, maybe four hours, depending on the day."

"And you just suspended me in a solid three-minute lift, after a full squad workout. For fun. Like it was nothing." Culver shook her head. "Fuck, Shepard. That's pretty incredible."

Shepard just shook her head, ignoring the praise. "Can I hit the showers, ma'am? I've only got an hour to get cleaned up and get chow before I have mess duty."

Culver's eyes got wide, "Oh, shit. Yeah. Get outta here."

As Shepard collected her stuff and headed to the shower, Culver just watched her go. _That's one tough kid. Not a peep of complaint this whole time and the entire squad's been abusing the shit out of her for over three months. Time for me to take a personal interest in the additional duty roster._

Shepard was relieved of mid-watch that night by one of her squad mates and got the best continuous eight hours of sleep she'd gotten in what seemed like forever. Things were better after that; the captain set up a rotational additional duty roster where everyone took a fair turn, including both the FNG and the squad captain.

**December 2173 - SSV Leipzig, First Fleet**

The day after Christmas, the squad got a call; pirates had attacked Arvuna in the Caleston Rift. The moon was colonized in 2160; the population was spread out over several well-shielded colonies, and had grown to nearly 500,000 folks. Because of its size, they actually had a decent civil defense force, so First Fleet figured they finally had a decent chance at intercepting the pirates that had been plaguing the outlying colonies for months. The attack was still ongoing when the Rapid Response fleet dropped out of FTL and immediately incapacitated the pirate fleet. Major Stevenson had laid out the ground battle plan and completed the pre-mission briefing en-route, so as they broke atmosphere, the shuttle bay doors began to open and shuttles dropped like angry hornets from an irritated nest. While multiple squads were distributed throughout various settlements across the moon of Dranen, the major and his command team of twelve, along with squads Alpha and Delta, dropped into the colonial capital of Asa. The pirate force had breached the colonial defenses and was working its way through the city, so the RRT landed behind their rear lines and pinched them against Asa's defenders. Stevenson's team took the center, while Alpha and Delta split to flank opposite sides, forcing the pirates to fight on all four fronts.

Each squad had six members; two soldiers, two engineers, an infiltrator and a biotic. Alpha squad split to the left flank; Captain Culver was the infiltrator, so went wide left to some high ground and pulled out her sniper rifle, using the scope both to target the enemy as well as to assist in directing the ground forces. The two engineers, Marine Lieutenant Eva Schwartz and Navy Lieutenant Ricky Allen, formed the middle ranks, focusing on dropping enemy shields and disabling their weapons. Two Marine Sergeants, Michael Ridley and Patrick Lahm, formed the frontal attack line along with Shepard. They had been drilling and practicing together for six months, but this was the first real action they were seeing as a team. Shepard glanced at her front line compatriots, "You guys ready to rock 'n roll?"

They each flashed her a grin and Lahm responded, "Ready to see what ya got, ma'am. Rock it, and we got your back."

Shepard grinned, "Sweet. Try to keep up, boys!" She keyed her comm, "Alpha 6 going deep!" They jumped the wall and dived to the next cover, sitting there for mere seconds before Shepard selected her first set of targets, pulled on her biotics and charged into the fray. The pirates, up until that point, didn't realize anyone was behind them; that changed immediately when the first pirate launched forward, his neck broken from the strength of the biotic charge impact, and his buddy right next to him dropped dead of a close up shotgun blast to the center of his chest. As the pirates' rear lines recognized the threat, their shields started coming up, only to be dismayed when they flickered and died again, the Alliance techs already hacking them and shutting them down. Shepard docked her shotgun, pulled out her pistol and activated her omniblade before turning into a tornado of destruction. She slipped into a semi-meditative trance and called on her knowledge of Asari martial arts. With shields down, the average pirate didn't stand a chance as she swept through, unrelenting as a torrential rain. A quick lift followed by a short charge hardly used any of her biotic reserve, yet it killed the lifted enemy and tossed any others within a three meter radius to the ground, allowing Ridley and Lahm low-risk kills. The captain sat up high, picking off high-risk targets and providing guidance on general battle flow, with an occasional warning call when someone slipped the line or got back up when no one expected them to rise again.

The left side had almost completely collapsed when Shepard heard Culver cry out in pain. Tapping her comm, she queried, "Captain? Status?"

Getting no reply, she glanced over her shoulder but couldn't get a visual, so told Ridley she was breaking off to check on team lead. He nodded in acknowledgement, and Shepard turned and trotted off to a set of steps that climbed to the upper level. As she crested the top, she realized someone had slipped the line and Culver was in a hand-to-hand with a huge Turian. He was apparently an assassin in for a quiet kill; he had two long hooked blades instead of any guns, and Culver still had her sniper rifle in her hands. The assassin had gotten too close before Culver realized he was there; she hadn't had time to swap out weapons before the attack and ended up using her rifle as a shield and club. Time slowed to a crawl as Shepard pulled her biotics, and watched one of the assassin's long blades punch up though Culver's armor and bite deep into her side. Shepard saw the look of surprise and pain burst across the captain's face before the Vanguard turned into a bolt of blue lightening, blasting the Turian into oblivion.

She quickly dropped to her knees beside Culver's still form, jumping on the comm, "Alpha 2! Captain's down! Get your ass up on the wall!"

Allen looked at Schwartz and signaled her off, and Eva called back on the comm indicating she was on her way as she took off running. Shepard popped the seals on Culver's helmet, carefully removing it. The assassin's first stroke must have been a pommel to the comm attachment on the side of the helmet, which was why they only heard a single cry of pain...the captain's comms had been disabled by the blow. Then the fight had begun in earnest, leaving Culver in her current predicament. Shepard broke the seals on the Culver's chestplate and removed it so she could get to the wound. Her guess was a perforated lung because Culver had blood dripping from the corner of her mouth. Culver's eyes fluttered open and her face was etched with anguish. She drew in a wheezing breath and immediately gagged, choking on the blood in her airway. Shepard could see panic setting into her eyes, and gently rolled her up on her side to help clear the blood from her mouth. "Don't worry, Cap. We got ya. Eva's on her way."

Culver spasmed in pain, her hand searched madly for purchase of anything to hang onto. Shepard clasped forearms with her and felt the crushing grip pulse as waves of pain passed through the captain's body. It was obvious she was struggling to breathe. Eva slid up beside them and glanced quickly at Shepard. "I need you to roll her over or sit her up so I can get to the wound."

With a quick nod, Shepard changed positions and sat Culver up, pulling her into her own body to give the captain something (_someone_) to lean against while not having to break the arm clasp and take away Culver's only mechanism to deal with her pain. She looked at Eva and whispered, "Check for poison. It was an assassin's Karambit blade. Good chance it was tainted."

"Shit. Good catch, Shepard." A quick sweep of her omnitool and Schwartz flipped her comm over to the fleet channel. "Leipzig medical, this is Engineer Swartz. Need a priority one medevac, my coordinates. We have a punctured and collapsed lung with a paralytic toxin. I have no counteragent on my person. I need the doc to come with the shuttle or we're gonna lose Alpha 1." After she received a response, Eva looked back to Shepard. "We've gotta keep it together for three minutes." Eva got to work cleaning and dressing the open wound while Shepard sat, holding the struggling Culver tight in her arms.

Culver coughed blood onto the front of Shepard's armor and groaned; her eyelids starting to flutter closed. Shepard squeezed her arm and hugged her tight across the shoulders. "Hey! Captain! I ran up here like a maniac to save your ass, no dying on me now." Culver's eyes closed completely and Shepard gave her another tight squeeze. "Sharon Culver, you wake your ass up and stay with me!" The eyelids didn't budge, but Shepard felt the grip on her forearm tighten just a bit; Culver was still fighting.

The medevac shuttle screamed in and Shepard lit up with biotics, lifting Culver and carrying her easily to the shuttle door, depositing her on the stretcher. While Eva tossed the captain's armor plates and helmet onto the deck, the doc immediately injected a fast-acting counteragent for the paralytic directly into Culver's carotid artery. Within moments, Culver drew a deep choking breath; as her eyes fluttered open again, Shepard looked directly into Culver's eyes and spoke again. "Oh Captain, my Captain, our fearful trip is done. The ship has weathered every rack; the prize we sought is won."

She saw recognition light Culver's eyes as the team lead quietly grunted out, "Shepard... you ass... captain ... dies ... that poem!"

Shepard started chuckling. "Who knew you'd recognize an old 1800's Walt Whitman poem! There's more to you than meets the eye, my Captain!" Shifting her attention to the doc, she said, "You take care of her now. We'll come check on her when we get back topside. Thanks, Doc!"

With a last squeeze of Culver's forearm and a quick wave to the Doc, Shepard stepped away from the shuttle, turned and ran to the assassin's body, made sure he was dead and collected his deadly blades. She then ran back to the remains of Alpha squad. As she fell back in line with her compatriots, she switched her comms back to the squad channel, announcing, "Cap's gonna be fine, but keep in mind we're now down our sniper. Let's finish this." With acknowledging nods from the team, they pressed forward and the battle raged on.

* * *

In the aftermath of the battle for Asa, Major Stevenson set up a planetary control center to coordinate retaking and recovery of all the settlements. Alpha and Delta squads both deployed forward to aid other settlements where the battles weren't going so well. Engineer Ricky Allen was the ranking officer after Culver, so he took over the Alpha team lead position, and at the end of the operation, provided the squad summary to Major Stevenson. It was shortly after Allen returned to the squad when Shepard got summoned to the command tent. Shepard stepped into the control center and saluted, "Ensign Shepard reporting as ordered, Sir!"

The major waved at Shepard to move closer to the table they were using as a planning map. "We had a pretty big fight on our hands today, and we made it look easy."

Shepard scoffed, "That's because they were a bunch of unorganized hooligans, sir. They had the manpower, but didn't have the training or discipline to readjust once their plan went to hell."

Stevenson looked at Shepard with an appraising eye before he continued, "You're right, of course, but we still had a good day. I got the report on Captain Culver; Allen, Schwartz and the doc all say your quick action and field assessment of her condition saved her life."

Shepard shrugged, "Just doing my job, sir."

Stevenson shook his head, "No, your job was to kill pirates. Your situational awareness got you off the line and on that wall to back up your captain. Without your actions, she'd be dead now. The doc submitted a recommendation for a Distinguished Service Medal, and I'm going to endorse it and forward it to Fleet."

Shepard's eyes got big. "But Sir, it's my first action! Everyone's already getting silly Colonial Defense Medals for breathing Asa air while we kicked the pirates' asses. What are folks gonna say when I get something like that my first time out?"

"Everybody's going to say what I knew six months ago, Ensign. You're going to be the best damn Vanguard in the Systems Alliance and you're going to make one hell of an officer." After a brief pause to let Shepard absorb what he said, the major continued. "I told you we need people like you. That's why I personally picked you for the First Fleet RRT. The DSM's a no-brainer. Now go catch up with the rest of Alpha squad at the shuttle pad. You guys are done and returning to the ship; your squad's waiting on you." When Shepard hesitated, he laughed. "Go. Check on your Captain." The major turned away, obviously dismissing her, and got on the radio, talking to a couple of squads finishing up at one of the other settlements and requesting transport back to base camp.

* * *

Once back on the Leipzig, Shepard went straight to the armory and removed her weapons and armor, cleaning everything and storing it all in her equipment locker, including a pair of decontaminated Karambit blades; she didn't need to be accidentally poisoning herself. She also found the captain's gear and cleaned it all up, asking the armory master to repair the damaged seam and store it for her, since Shepard had no access to Culver's locker. He happily obliged, seeing as he would have been the one to clean it for the captain anyway if Shepard hadn't volunteered to do it. By the time Shepard was done, she was dead on her feet. She swung by the mess and slammed an energy drink, knowing she needed to replace the calories and electrolytes from her biotics usage. She then grabbed a quick shower and happily slipped into some clean clothes before returning to the mess hall for a real meal. After sucking another fifteen hundred calories into her stomach, she almost felt full.

Knowing it was late, she slipped quietly into the medbay to talk with Doc Walker and check up on Culver. The minute she stepped in, she thought of Karin and the fact she hadn't talked to her in a while. _I've got to remedy that... tomorrow_. "Hey Doc. How's the captain doing?"

Walker smiled, "Good, thanks to you. A week of bed rest followed by another week of light duty and she'll be back in the game. Technically, it's after visiting hours, but you can go check up on her. Just keep it down and try not to stay too long."

Shepard hesitated. "Nah, I'll catch her tomorrow. I just wanted to hear from you how she was." As she started to turn to leave, Doc Walker reached out and gently grabbed her arm. "Shepard. Please stop in and see her. She's been asking about you since she woke up from her surgery."

Shepard's brow wrinkled. "Asking about me? Whatever for? She's the one that got the pig sticker wedged between her ribs..."

The Doc nodded knowingly. "Yes she was... and you're the one who got there in time to pull her ass out of the fire. She knows you saved her life today, Ensign. She just needs to see you, that's all. That's how it works sometimes. She needs to know... needs to see for herself that her savior came back ok, too."

Shepard was uncomfortable with the label of 'savior' but figured she could accommodate the captain's desire to see her; it wouldn't cost her anything but a small delay in getting to her rack. As she stepped toward the back of the med bay, the doc pulled a privacy curtain across the area, separating them from the rest of the bay. She approached the bed quietly, an uneasy feeling in her stomach as she looked down at the captain, suddenly looking extremely vulnerable out of uniform, with nothing on but a hospital gown. Culver's face held a serene expression that Shepard had never seen and without thinking, she reached down and gently ran her fingers through Culver's short-cropped black hair, gently stroking across her temple with the pad of her thumb. Culver's eyes crept open, and as their eyes met, Shepard had a soft blush on her face at having gotten caught caressing her face, but gave her a soft smile and spoke softly. "Hey, Captain. Heard you needed to see me. How do you feel?" She slowly started to withdraw her hand, now that the Captain was awake.

Before Shepard could make good on her escape, Culver reached out and caught her arm and blinked a couple of times, like she was trying to figure out exactly where she was and what was going on around her. She didn't release her hold as she whispered, "I'm glad you're here, Shepard. I... I wanted to thank you. For everything."

"Ah, no big deal. Just doing my job, Cap, and covering your ass." As usual, Shepard shrugged off the praise, embarrassed by the extra attention her actions brought.

Culver shook her head. "What is it with you and your inability to accept compliments? Quit denying it. You're front line, not rear guard...you sidestepped your job and came back to save my ass." The captain dropped her eyes as she finished, squeezing Shepard's arm as she spoke, "And more. You stuck around. Once Eva was there, you could've gone back to the line, but you didn't. You kept me connected. If you hadn't been there, I would have died in those three minutes, Shep. I was tired. I was scared. I couldn't breathe. But I could hear you... and I felt your grip...grounding me."

Shepard reached around with her free hand and dragged a chair over. She didn't know what it was, but she could sense the captain needed something from her tonight. Even though the Doc said to keep it short, she was obviously going to be here a while, so figured she might as well take a load off. They talked for quite some time, about lots of things, from battle and the concerns of mortality to Walt Whitman and Shepard's poor choice of poem. She smiled and chuckled softly. "Hey, it brought out a bit more of your fight, didn't it? Here I thought you were dying and you take your last breaths to chew me out for being an ass."

Sometime during the conversation, the forearm grip had slid down to a hand, and the two sat there talking softly with their fingers intertwined, not even thinking about it. Finally, the captain gave up, whispering softly. "I don't want to stop talking with you, but I'm tired, Shep." Their eyes met as she continued. "I think I'd like it if you came back for a bit tomorrow... and if you'd stay until I fall asleep?"

Shepard smiled again as she responded. "No sweat, Cap. I got no place to be. I'll be right here for you. As long as you need me."

Their fingers remained intertwined, and Culver's eyes slid closed. Shepard sat there for a bit, listening carefully, waiting for her captain's breathing to pick up that slow rhythmic tempo that indicated sleep. She too was exhausted and couldn't wait to hit the rack once the captain slipped away from consciousness.

After a while, the Doc peeked around the edge of the curtain and his lips twitched into a smile. After what he had seen and heard in the medevac, he'd had his suspicions the two might be together. The captain was clearly relaxed and in no pain, vitals strong and steady. What was more entertaining was the ensign who tried to dodge visiting to begin with; she sat slumped in the chair, her fingers intertwined with those of the patient, her chin resting on her chest, sound asleep.

**1 January 2174 - SSV Leipzig, First Fleet**

Over the week while the captain was on bed rest in the med bay, Shepard had visited her every day and they had unexpectedly developed a burgeoning friendship, beyond the norm of simple workmates. They had discovered they had much in common; more so than just liking big guns and blowing things up... they liked poetry, music, history. When the week was almost up, Shepard helped Culver relocate to her room on New Year's Eve, and as promised, returned the next morning to check on her. When Shepard heard Culver shout out, she tagged the door switch and bounced into the room, smiling. "Hey, Cap! Happy New Year! How we doing this morning?"

Culver grimaced. "I feel like shit. First night back in my own room and I slipped in the shower this morning; I didn't fall, but it still feels like I pulled something when I caught myself. Doc checked and says I didn't, but you can't convince me of that from the way my side hurts and my lung burns if I take too deep of a breath." She scowled as she continued, "I'm too damn young to have one of those nagging injuries that never heals."

Shepard smirked. "Hell of a way to start a new year, but that's what you get. You weren't even supposed to be up yet. You were supposed to come to your room and chill, one last day of bed rest before jumping up and doing stuff on your own. Your one week doesn't end until tonight. That's why I'm here... remember?"

Culver growled, "Watch it, Shepard. You're still the FNG in my book; I can rescind the rotation schedule I set up." She glared at the ensign, awaiting the snappy reply she felt was coming.

Shepard just laughed as she walked behind the captain and started gently massaging her shoulders. "Oh, give it a rest, Cap. You know if you did that I'd suddenly be too busy to come visit you, because I'd be back down to four hours of sleep a night. No time to keep you company if I have a schedule like that."

Culver's eyes were closed and her head drooped forward, reveling in the lovely pressure across her back and the base of her neck, additional duty rosters forgotten. "God, you're good at that, Shep. Any good at stretching lats? Gently?"

Shepard's eyes twinkled. "Oh, I can probably manage something without hurting you too bad. Come on. On the bed, face down." The captain got up from her desk chair and gingerly slid onto her bed, lying across the end so Shepard could reach easily. Shepard started out by working her hip and then her shoulder, before slowly rotating Culver's arm up over her head to fully extend the lat muscle running down her side. Shepard squatted near Culver's head and used long, slow, firm strokes to stretch the muscle slowly without tickling, also leaning over a bit to reach the thoracic muscles running down beside her spine. "Let me know if I press too hard and if anything at all starts to hurt."

All she got in response was a soft groan and a breathy "a-huh." Culver's weak response made Shepard realize just how physically close she was to the captain, and she had a strange jumpy feeling in her stomach and her heart fluttered uncontrolled for a moment. _Shit! What the hell is that? I've heard of butterflies, but why the fuck would I be feeling them now... with Culver? _It suddenly dawned on Shepard that she had never had a boyfriend, and the realization that she was actually attracted to Culver smacked her square between the eyes. Shepard suddenly jerked back, realizing what had just happened, so caught up in the surge of unfamiliar emotion she didn't realize she spoke aloud. "Shit! What the hell am I doing? I... I've never done that!" She stood up quickly and turned away from Culver, her face unexpectedly aflame.

Culver chuckled at the expression she saw on Shepard's face before she turned away. "Never did what, Shepard? Gave a woman a massage?" She rolled over and sat up slowly, initially puzzled by what Shepard was so upset about. When Shepard turned back, she had no idea how to even begin to answer the captain's question. Culver recognized blind panic when she saw it and began to have an inkling about what was going on. She reached out and captured Shepard's wrist before she could bolt and gave the arm a gentle tug. "Come sit. Talk to me, Shep." She gave a second soft pull and Shepard finally moved, albeit slowly, to set next to her on the bed, but she maintained complete silence; her brain still struggling to grasp what was happening and to find words to express it.

Never having released her hold on Shepard's wrist, Culver pulled Shepard's hand over and set it on her own thigh, enclosing Shepard's hand with both of hers. Shepard didn't move; instead, she sat stiffly and stared at her own hand sitting on Culver's thigh almost like it had developed a mind of its own and betrayed her. After a moment, Culver started to speak softly. "It's ok, Shep. I've liked you for a while now, and this last week just cemented it in my head." She paused to make sure Shepard was actually listening to her, even though a look of apprehension was still hovering on the edges. "And here I thought you were fearless, both on and off the battlefield. Guess I read that completely wrong. You know I'd never hurt you, right? I'll never push you to do anything you don't want to... You trust me?"

Shepard still couldn't find her voice, but her eyes slowly came up and met Culver's. She swallowed hard and her head nodded slowly in the affirmative. Shepard blushed a deep crimson and she finally spoke; her voice starting out shaky but growing in strength and stability as she continued. "I'm almost twenty and I've never had a boyfriend... or a... girlfriend. I've never even kissed anybody... well, uhm... other than like my Mom, I mean."

Culver's jaw dropped in disbelief. "You. You've never kissed anybody. You're a freaking specimen of Athena, Goddess of War, and nobody has ever made any moves on you?" In her heart, Culver knew Shepard would never lie to her, but her mind had a really hard time believing the gorgeous woman before her had never been kissed. She barked out a laugh. "Only reason I can see is that you must have scared the shit out of 'em!"

Shepard went from embarrassed to ashamed as she continued. "I grew up a spacer. My mom's Alliance and my dad was killed when I was eleven, so I was moving all the time, jumping ship to ship. And then I became a biotic... and anyplace other than the military, biotics are freaks. I was lucky just to have friends, much less anybody who ever thought about wanting to kiss me."

Culver saw the pain in Shepard's face from the confession, and reached up to gently caress Shepard's cheek as she whispered. "Well then, their loss. I, on the other hand, would very much like to kiss you. Right here. Right now." She studied Shepard's reaction and saw a mix of trepidation and curiosity. "May I?"

Shepard's heart fluttered erratically and she felt like she couldn't breathe, but she nodded her head and spoke very softly as she leaned forward. "I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing."

Culver's hand slipped from Shepard's cheek to wrap gently around the back of her neck. "That's ok. I'm happy to show you."

She pulled Shepard tenderly into the kiss, reveling in the softness of the Vanguard's mouth, the temerity and gentleness of Shepard's touch. After a couple of exploratory chaste contacts, Culver opened her kiss and ran her tongue across her partner's lips and was rewarded by a soft whimper of pleasure from Shepard.

For Shepard's part, the starting kisses were wonderful, but the minute Culver's tongue hit her lips, a rush of... _something_ ... coursed through her body and she felt a surge of warmth suddenly pool in her core, her stomach flipped and her whole body cried in pleasure, making her whimper incoherently. She opened her mouth to gasp for air and Culver's tongue slipped in quickly, running along her lips and starting a dance with her tongue that made Shepard's whole body quiver with unexpected delight.

Shepard suddenly realized just how enjoyable kissing could be. She still couldn't fully wrap her mind around the fact that it was with a woman, but assumed it was simply because she had never been exposed to any type of lesbian relationship, so it was foreign to her. As those thoughts ran rampant through her mind, she realized she was cheating herself out of fully enjoying her current activity with Culver. She could feel the heat rising as her face turned bright red. When Culver questioned her about the heavy blush, she stuttered her way through a brief explanation.

Culver busted out laughing, "God damn, Shep. You're so freaking adorable! I don't know if I want to hug you, kiss you, or ravage you all night long, starting right now!"

The first expression that flew across Shepard's face was shock at the word 'ravage' but she quickly realized Culver was kidding and started laughing herself. She began to relax and soon the trademark rakish grin was once again plastered on her face. Finally finding her feet back underneath her, Shepard regained her balance and some of her confidence. "Well. Now that the sexual tension is relieved, you want me to finish that massage I started?"

The next few months were bliss; Culver was an excellent lover and she was extremely patient and accommodating as she helped Shepard fully discover her newfound sexuality. Both women realized the arrangement was most likely short term, for a variety of reasons, the most prominent being they were both career military and fifty years of mostly separate assignments did not bode well for any type of sustainable future. Even so, they still had shared an event on Asa that bonded them forever together in ways they could not ignore. Because of that, both were willing to accept the truth of their inevitable separation while still enjoying moments of pleasure between the calls to war. They knew they wouldn't have a happily ever after, but they also knew they would forever be sisters-in-arms.

**1 April 2174 - SSV Leipzig, First Fleet**

Shepard rapped on the door and slid into the room once she heard the all clear. "Hey, Cap. You busy?" As the captain looked up, Shepard realized the expression was not good; something was wrong. She took a few steps and closed the distance between them, laying a hand gently on Culver's arm. With a furrowed brow, she queried, "What's the matter, Cap? What's wrong?"

The Alpha squad leader said nothing, just handed Shepard a datapad. Culver's silence was highly irregular and Shepard was almost afraid to read what was on the pad. _Please don't let anyone be missing or dead..._ She finally glanced down, and quickly realized it wasn't an accident notification of any kind. Her legs felt weak and she dropped herself onto the bed. "Shit. When do you actually leave?" Captain Sharon Culver had a new assignment and Shepard was holding a copy of her orders to the 3rd Frontier Division.

Culver sat on the bed next to Shepard before she spoke. "It's a really good job. I'll be promoted to Major and be a company commander over two hundred Marines, with three rifle and one heavy weapons platoons, in addition to my command element. 3rd Company, 3rd Frontier Division at Yamm in the Kalabsha system in the Nubian Expanse. The capital is Karnak and it has just over 400,000 folks." She let out a sigh. "I still wish it was an April Fool's joke, but it's not. I leave in thirty days." She glanced up and captured Shepard's eyes, immediately followed by her lips.

When the kiss finally broke, it was Shepard's turn to sigh. "Well, not like we didn't know it was coming sooner or later and haven't talked about it. Guess this is where we get to walk the talk, huh?" Shepard shook her head as Culver went to answer. "Rhetorical question. Don't answer that. That's what we get for jumping in with both feet to a known short-term relationship with two career minded women." She forced a smile and tackled Culver back onto the bed. "Well, as they say, we've made our bed, now we get to lie in it. At least for thirty more days, anyway." The forced smile quickly turned into her trademark raffish grin, accompanied by laughter. "I say we make the best of it."

Culver shook her head and laughed with her lover. "Shepard! You're incorrigible! But I agree with your assessment." She paused only briefly before returning for another kiss from her 'short-term' lover... Shepard did not complain when that kiss lasted, off and on amongst other activities, through most of the night.


	10. Beyond the Blitz

**Beyond the Blitz**

**2176 - SSV Agincourt, Petra Nebula, Vetus System**

Hanna Shepard smiled at her daughter as they finished up their conversation over the comm link. "So, are you going to be able to spend any time with Karin while you're on Elysium?"

Shepard laughed, "No. She's working, having to coordinate delivery of all the drugs and medical gear to the various clinics. I'm going down to Illyria with the guys in a bit. We've got four days off since we're just Jarheads and have no operational tasks right now. The pirates have been busy down here, so we've been hitting quite a few strongholds. We're due a rest."

Hanna blew her daughter a kiss. "I've got to run, Sam. Be careful down there. Say hello to Karin for me and give Culver my love next time you talk to her."

"Will do, Mom. 3rd Company's been hopping, keeping their commander really busy too. Last few times we've tried to touch base our schedules have been off. We've exchanged a few messages, but haven't talked in a couple of months. I'll drop her a text so I don't forget." Shepard smiled and blew a kiss back before terminating the link. Glancing at her chrono, she stood up and stretched, threw a last couple items in her overnight bag, holstered her standard service pistol and headed for the shuttle.

* * *

The first night passed quickly with figuring out the layout of the city, getting checked in to a hotel and grabbing dinner, followed by a night of drinking at the bar. Now that it was daylight and the crew was up and about, enjoying their first full day off in Illyria, the capital of Elysium. It was a great city; it was a beautiful sunny summer day, and though it was a human colony, roughly half of the population was non-human so there was an incredible amount of cultural diversity. Astronaut Jon Grissom had retired on Elysium and Shepard had hoped maybe they'd get to meet him. However, circumstances did not agree; apparently the dedication of the Jon Grissom Academy space station was happening and every reporter on the planet was trying to get an interview with the poor man, so he was locked away in his home and refused to see anyone. Instead, the group had spent the morning shopping and then returned to the hotel to drop off their booty. They asked the hotel concierge about a good, inexpensive place to eat and he laughed. "Ah. You need to head down to Mack's on Second and Delta; it's all things Earth. You can get pizza or a burger and they sell a local microbrew so the beer is cheap, perfect for a couple of Lieutenants and Sergeants salaries. You'll love it."

The group looked around at one another and decided it was ok to give it a go. While they should have numbered six, the Captain had reports to finish and also wanted to buy and install some tech upgrades. Since he was an Engineer Operative, they figured they could give him some slack; anything he could find to juice up his barrier and shield overload functions were more than welcome. Their infiltrator was also missing, exuding her normal attitude of 'I work alone.' Whether she had simply not bothered to show up or she was shadowing them just for kicks to see how long it took the group to figure out she was there was inconsequential. No one in the group had the heart to tell her they just didn't care for her games and they had stopped looking after the first time she pulled her little stunt. That left Shepard, a baby lieutenant engineer fresh out of school named Tim Bilyeu, and two Sergeants, Sandy Mueller and Stu Humphries.

Shepard and her three squad mates plopped themselves down at an outdoor table and placed their orders. They had all gotten a burger of one type or another, even though none of them cared to guess what exactly the 'burger' was made of, but when the food arrived, they had to agree with the hotel concierge; the food was good and the beer was cheap so Mack's went to the top of the list of acceptable places to eat. They were just finishing up when they heard the roar of engines. The four of them looked up in unison and saw multiple craft entering the atmosphere at the same time. Knowing the port wasn't large enough to handle more than five large transports as a time, Shepard immediately felt a knot forming in her gut. She threw a credit chip on the table and directed the squad. "Something isn't right guys... let's move back to the port and see what's going on."

As they cleared the last line of buildings, Shepard got a good view of the hovering spacecraft and it was very evident who was landing. Shepard broke into a dead run as she yelled, "Fuckin' Pirates! Move it!"

Military presence on Elysium was very small, restricted mostly to customs inspectors, and was augmented by local civil defense forces for actual port security. The foursome ran to the port, and soon caught up to the civilian force captain in charge of defense. He was obviously surprised that he had actual military available, and he stared at them for a second before speaking. "Where the hell did you guys come from?"

Shepard rolled her eyes and questioned the man's competency. How did he not know the SSV London Cruiser Flotilla was on tour doing supply and anti-piracy runs, and more specifically, that the Agincourt was currently in orbit over his planet? He was supposed to be the Port Security Captain! Her frustration showed in her response as she yelled at the man, "Who the fuck cares where we came from? We're here! What do you need us to do?"

The captain looked bewildered. "All I've got is civilian police and a few customs agents. Just go to the front and start yelling orders, they'll listen to you!"

Shepard shook her head, "We're here on leave. The officers have service pistols, but our two Sergeants don't have anything. What have you got to spare?"

The captain ran them to the armory and broke open a weapons cabinet. He started handing over shotguns and clips. "Sorry. All we have are riot control weapons. No autos, semi-autos or heavy weapons."

Shepard took whatever he handed her. "Whatever you've got is better than our bare knuckles. We'll take 'em!" Redirecting her comments to the squad, she grimaced. "Let's go do what we do best, guys!"

As they charged to the front, Shepard quickly took stock of available forces and tried to organize a defensive line. There was a short watchtower at the town wall and she turned to her engineer. "Tim. Get your ass up in that tower to give yourself better line of sight. Work as fast as you can at overloading shields. With shotguns and small arms, we'll need all the help we can get taking down their defenses."

The troops consisted of civilian policemen and military customs agents, few of which had any front line battle experience. She quickly split the defense into two teams, sending Sandy to the left and Stu to the right. "You guys just need to exude confidence and help them hold the line. They need you to set the example so they know what the hell they should do and how they should act. We just gotta hold a defensive line until the Agincourt can get us more support from the Flotilla." She saw the questions in their eyes. "I don't know how long that will be, so just keep plugging. I'll float back and forth to provide support in the center seam and wherever it's needed most. My charge will let me move around fast, as required." A final glance between them and they were all off to their positions.

Fortunately, the attacking pirates were no different than anything Shepard had seen to date; they relied completely on fear and intimidation. They had no hard core experience or military style leadership, relying solely on overwhelming mass and firepower; still, the situation was daunting with the pirates outnumbering them three to one, and some of them carried heavy weapons. In contrast, the civil defense had some stun grenades in addition to standard arms, but that was it. Their very survival depended on receiving reinforcements, and despite what she told the troops, Shepard wasn't positive that was a given. Her hope was based on the SSV Agincourt surviving the initial assault to send a distress call. Based on what pirate vessels the Flotilla has seen so far in the Petra Nebula and what ships dropped through the atmosphere to deliver the invading force, she assumed the Agincourt would be able to defend herself, but she also knew assumptions could get you killed if you were wrong.

The pirates advance was relentless; for every one of them shot down, two stepped forward to take his or her place. They were obviously there to pillage, not take slaves, as they killed anything that crossed their path; loss of life did not concern them and more dead meant more people to pick clean of their possessions. Confident in their overwhelming force, bullets just sprayed the wall of defenders and heavy weapons were launched indiscriminately; the pirates didn't even bother to aim. As a Vanguard, Shepard wanted to be out in the front line. It chaffed at the very core of her being to hide behind a wall and play defense, but having no armor really limited her options.

The line broke to the right and she pulled on her biotics to charge down the line, crushing one of the pirates who broke through and blasting a second with her riot gun. Even a riot gun was lethal at close range. In a flash of inspiration, she told one of the customs officers to strip the armor off the dead pirates and give it to someone about the same size. "Damaged armor is better than no armor. The minute you get a female armor set, you find me!"

What followed was a massacre in every sense of the word. She was forced to watch the line slowly crumble as defender after defender went down to enemy fire. As time dragged by, Shepard watched the defenses get slowly dismantled, wave after wave of pirates hitting the line, the sheer numbers working against them. They scavenged armor from every pirate they killed, and now most of the defenders had at least a chest and back plate on but it didn't really matter, their numbers were dwindling fast. Still, Shepard was the epitome of a hardened leader; now with had a front and back plate, leggings and greaves she could function as a true Vanguard again. Back in her element, she pulled on her biotics to charge up and down the line, giving constant support to the troops, and personally reinforcing the line wherever it broke until someone could shift to fill the gap.

The first of her squad to fall was Tim, when a well placed explosive rocket took down the whole damn watch tower. The falling pieces injured a number of other defenders as well, a significant blow to their already dwindling numbers and left a significant hole in the line. She charged into the breach calling for additional help as she swapped out her shotgun for her pistol and her omniblade. The breach was too large and the pirates were coming too fast; the shotgun didn't have a quick enough fire rate to keep up with her needs. In spite of the inherent risk with so many enemies in close proximity, the situation was desperate so she slipped into a meditative battle trance and called on her Asari martial arts. She didn't need to _see_ the enemy, she could _sense_ them and countered their moves before they even really got started. Her motions turned to water as she flowed through the enemy; the pirates were completely unequipped to deal with the tsunami she became. In her private time dimension, the battle slowed and she moved through it with little resistance, cutting pirates down like paper targets. Lift. Charge. Explosion. Kill lingering survivors. Repeat!

Between the time when she called for reinforcements and when the gap was filled, Shepard had eliminated an uncountable number of pirates, by herself. As time returned to normal, she looked to assess the situation and realized Stu had also fallen as the pirates surged through the gap. She tapped her comm, "Sandy, we lost both Tim and Stu on the right with that last rocket attack, so I have to stay on this end to shore up the right flank."

"Damn it! I sure hope the London gets here soon with some help!" Sandy's response was broken by the discharge of a shotgun before she continued. "Not sure how much longer we're gonna hold."

Not sure if she was speaking the truth, Shepard said it anyway. "They'll be here."

The minute the breach was fully closed and their defensive perimeter fairly stable once more, a group of medics rolled in from the local hospital. As far as Shepard was concerned, they were the true heroes. No military training at all, yet there they were on the front lines trying to provide aid and keep the defenders standing. Shepard tried to brush them off, telling them to help others first, but one of them grabbed Shepard by the front of her armor, amidst her protests. "Ma'am! If you don't let me help you, you're going to bleed to death."

That got her attention and she knelt down and peeled her armor off. The one serious limitation to using the meditative battle trance; adrenalin and biotics scream so loud in the fight, it overpowers everything else, including pain. She didn't even realize she had sustained multiple gunshot wounds. The only thing that kept her on her feet was absolute force of will. The medic started working frantically and Shepard hissed repeatedly as he worked to remove bullets and squeezed medigel into her numerous wounds. She continued to scan the line, trying to ensure she didn't leave anyplace vulnerable while she was down. Eventually the medic waved something in front of her eyes to get her attention. "Drink this while I finish up. It'll give you back some of your energy."

Shepard focused on his hand and took the container, realizing it was a biotic electrolyte boost. She slammed it down as he put on the last of the necessary bindings and helped her get her armor back on. He offered his hand to help her get back up and once they were both standing, their eyes met one last time and a thousand words of fear, encouragement, hope and blind faith were exchanged in a glance. He made a fist and struck her once on the side of her shoulder; with a quick nod, he was off to help the next person.

The medic had actually been pretty efficient, and her prompt return to the battle was in time to see a second major breach of the defensive line. She charged back into the fray, biotics blazing and shotgun roaring, ending in frantic hand-to-hand combat. She couldn't afford to drop into a battle trance a second time because it made her too vulnerable with the sheer number of pirates now inside the wall. The number of dead and dying was appalling, the smell of blood and death so thick in the air she could taste it. The odds grew worse by the minute, yet Shepard fought on, refusing to give in. Just as survival of the colony looked impossible, the first military reinforcements showed on the horizon, and the pirates outside the wall began their retreat, realizing the cause was lost. Those inside were in a fight for their lives and any attempt at retreat would just get them killed, so the close-in battle raged until the last pirate fell.

Shepard glanced around in the sudden crushing silence and tapped her comm. "Sandy." Shepard's heart fell as she listened to the deafening quiet. "Sergeant Mueller." _Damn it._

Finally letting her biotics drop, Shepard collapsed to her knees in fatigue and surveyed the scene; she already knew her three squad members had perished, but all the military customs agents were also dead and the entire Elysium police force was reduced to roughly twenty members. The only good news out of the fiasco was that the millions of Elysium civilians were safe.

As she sat there waiting on the reinforcements to breach the wall and come to their aid, Shepard started to shake from exhaustion. She caught sight of an Alliance Navy commander and assumed he was leading the reinforcements. As he approaching her, she struggled to stand to greet him. She didn't get very far; having absolutely no fuel left in her tank, the minute she snapped into a brace position to salute, her world spun and she collapsed into darkness.

**2176 - SSV London, Petra Nebula, Vetus System**

Shepard awoke to a pounding headache, augmented by an insistent steady beeping in the background, both intrusive and annoying. As she cracked her eyes open she was assaulted by bright light that seemed to drill right through her eyes into her brain, so she reflexively slammed her eyes shut and issued a disgruntled groan. She tried to raise an arm to block the light, but her arms felt leaden and nonresponsive. She was tempted to go back to sleep but then she heard the voice; a voice that didn't belong on the medbay of the Agincourt.

"Welcome back, Lieutenant. Seems you can't stay out of my medbay no matter how hard you try." The crisp British accent of Karin Chakwas was music to Shepard's ears.

Without opening her eyes, Shepard attempted a weak smile and whispered, "Your medbay? Since when did you get transferred to the Agincourt, Doctor?"

Karin let out a brief laugh. "Oh my dear, you are not on the Agincourt. You've been moved to the London. You're suffering extreme biotic exhaustion. For a change, I don't have to order you to stay in bed. I doubt you could move if you tried. Your limbs probably feel like you're under restraint, and I imagine you have one hell of a migraine... Oh my! I didn't think that through!"

Shepard immediately felt relief as the light trying to pound its way into her head dimmed significantly. Karin spoke again, "That's probably much better... Sorry. I neglected to compensate for your expected light sensitivity. That will last for a couple of days, so I'll note your chart to keep anyone from turning that back up on you."

Shepard cracked her eyes open and looked at Karin, not comforted by the concern she saw etched in her face. "Ok, Doc. So give it to me in full. How bad is it this time? How long will I be here?"

Shepard figured she was in deep when Karin sighed and pulled up a chair. It seemed this was going to be a long conversation. "It's not bad. Not really. But it is very complicated. A lot of moving parts. So much so I'm not even really sure where to begin. Some of this should be relayed by someone other than me, but everyone's busy, so I'll just tell you and ask forgiveness later if I make anyone angry."

"When you came aboard you were in rough shape. Your collapse may have reopened some of your gunshot wounds, but most likely your last big fight did it and you just didn't realize. Your blood pressure was in the basement; you were on the verge of bleeding out...I don't know how you stayed awake and on your feet as long as you did." Karin paused to take a deep steadying breath. Shepard felt terrible for causing her friend such anguish and made a supreme effort to reach a hand toward the doctor, who saw the effort and met her halfway, clasping the offered hand tightly as she continued her narrative.

"On the bright side, the London had an ample supply of synthetic blood so fate intervened and you were brought here, to me, instead of to the Agincourt." Karin gave her an endearing smile. "You were exhausted, but your L3 handled the load well, so you'll have no permanent neurological damage. You'll just have to put up with me for a solid month of a very gradual recovery period."

Shepard's jaw dropped at that announcement, and she snapped it closed again and queried, "A whole month? We'll be back at Arcturus by then!"

Karin chuckled, "Yes, my dear, but you don't need to worry about that. Let me finish and you'll understand why." Shepard got a petulant look on her face, but silenced herself so Karin could speak without interruption.

"Ok. I'm just going to give you a summary of all that has transpired since we finished putting you back together. First, I ditched all your newly acquired merc armor and removed all your personal items before sending your clothes through a cleaning cycle. We found your hotel key and they sent someone to check you out of the room and collect all your personal belongings, along with those of all your squad mates..." Karin's expression reflected great sadness for the briefest of moments before she replaced it with her professional mask. "Shepard. Every other member of your squad is gone. The Captain and your infiltrator, Lt Fizer, were at one of the other colonies and also perished in the assault. I'm sorry."

Shepard closed her eyes just briefly before reopening them and giving Karin's hand a squeeze as a cue to continue. "Then the Admiral stopped by to see you...you're going to hate it Sam, but there is nothing to be done about it, so just take it with grace and move on. They're calling you the Hero of Elysium for stepping up and organizing the defense, for holding out while vastly outnumbered until the reinforcements arrived...and for stepping alone into a massive breach that should have seen the city fall. With nothing more than your biotics, an omniblade and a pistol no less... You have been described as everything from the Devil's Wind to an Angel of Vengeance."

Shepard groaned when she heard Karin's next statement. "They're giving you the Star of Terra."

Shepard shook her head, already aggravated about all the attention that would soon be heaped upon her. "Fuck. They should be giving it to the damn hospital medics. Those guys came out there with no military training, no protection, no weapons... and they kept us all standing, at great personal risk to themselves. They're the real heroes. I just did my job, Karin. It's what we do. We protect those who cannot protect themselves." Shepard would have pulled her hand back from Karin if she'd had the strength, but Karin didn't allow it...she acted like she didn't even feel the slight tug Shepard was able to muster. Shepard whispered wearily, "They better give the same to those who gave their lives to accomplish the goal."

Karin was chagrined. "You know that won't happen, Sam. I do have one last thing I need to mention. You won't be returning to the Agincourt. The ship steward is arranging to have all your possessions moved to a room on the London. You are now listed in patient status and assigned to me. I'll have full authority over you through your recovery and return to full duty... and once I clear you, they're sending you to N school."

Shepard's face went completely blank before her brow furrowed and her lips pursed. "I've been on the Agincourt less than three months. This was my first deployment with the fleet. They're moving me already? Wait... to you? You're going to be my boss?" Shepard smirked and rolled her eyes in mock frustration, actually relieved that she wouldn't be shucked off to some hospital with a physical therapist she didn't know.

Karin sighed at Shepard's juvenile antics and shook her head. "Did you not hear what I said? They're sending you to the Interplanetary Combatives Training course at the Vila Militar in Rio de Janeiro. You're starting with the next class. They're going to make you an N7 Operative... " Karin's lips twitched up into a smile, "...assuming you graduate, of course."

Shepard grimaced. "That makes no sense. That means I'll graduate N school with only six years active service. I'll still only be a Lieutenant. I can't run my own N7 squad as a Lieutenant, an N3 or 4 maybe, but not an N7. So what the heck will they do with me until I get the necessary rank? I don't want to be some damn Admiral's 'special assistant,' that's for sure!"

Karin outright laughed. "Samantha Shepard! Don't let _them_ hear you say that. They'll promote you early, of course. You'll only be twenty-four and you'll be one of the youngest, if not _the_ youngest Lieutenant Commander in the Alliance Navy!"

Shepard let out a tired sigh. "Great. Something else to make me 'special.'" Shepard's eyes drifted closed, still tired and achy from the battle, and now exhausted by all the news thrown at her so soon after waking.

Karen didn't think it was possible; Samantha hadn't stirred an inch since she woke up, yet somehow she seemed to slump even deeper into the bed with her last statement, like she somehow deflated a bit more with the weight of the expectations being put upon her. "You need to get some sleep, so I'll leave you to it. I'm going to contact your mom, let her know we're alright. Anything you need before I go?"

Shepard's eyes fluttered open again. "Mom? Yeah. Tell her I love her, and ask her to get me some white sage. She should be able to get some from Earth..." Shepard had a hard time keeping her eyes open.

Karin looked at her questioningly. "White sage? What's it for?"

As Shepard's eyes closed hard for a final time, she mumbled, "Cleansing. Tell her I must have grabbed Dwyn's attention again..."

Karin was still confused. "Dwyn? Who's Dwyn, and what's he got to do with sage?" Getting no response, she just chuckled and tucked the sleeping Shepard's hand back under the covers. "I guess I'll just have to ask Hannah."

Karin stood and stretched her back. It had been a long day with much still unfinished. While very happy that Samantha was alive and relatively well, many other souls were not so lucky; she needed to close out their records for final disposition. W_on't get it done by standing around, but Hannah's first_. Karin left to make the call, the weight of the dead heavy on her shoulders.

* * *

**Notes: Dwyn = Celtic God of tricks and pranks... There will be some early McCormick history about this in the next QuickShot.**


End file.
